NYT: Woman close to Nvidia CEO passed intelligence to Beijing, U.S. agencies conclude

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, a Chinese citizen with close ties to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, was passing intelligence to Beijing, the New York Times reports, citing sources. President Trump was briefed on the findings roughly a year ago but chose to take no action, wary of disrupting Nvidia’s chip sales and further complicating trade relations with China, according to the report.

Alice Huang is a senior executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, which rents computing power to companies in China. Its primary client is Alibaba, the NYT writes. She initially drew scrutiny from U.S. intelligence agencies over suspicions that she was helping China circumvent export restrictions on advanced AI chips.

Electronic surveillance of Alice Huang revealed that she was in contact with a U.S. citizen, sources said. Because intelligence agencies cannot surveil Americans without a court order, his identity was established through a process known as “unmasking,” which identified him as Jensen Huang.

It is unclear when the two first met. The newspaper found a photograph showing Alice Huang, the Nvidia CEO, and other business executives socializing at a bar in Taipei after a tech trade show in June 2024. They were seen together again in Taipei in May 2025, leaving a restaurant after dinner with suppliers. Journalists were waiting outside for the Nvidia CEO.

The finding that Beijing was receiving information from someone with direct access to Jensen Huang, one of the most influential figures in AI and a Trump ally, raised alarm at the White House, the NYT writes. Huang could have had insights into the U.S. president’s thinking on an issue important to both countries. It remains unclear whether Alice Huang could have obtained information about Nvidia itself, a company that plays a major role in maintaining the U.S. lead in developing advanced AI models.

U.S. officials initially did not believe that the Nvidia CEO knew about Alice Huang’s intelligence-gathering role. Some senior Trump administration officials, however, doubt that he could have remained unaware, the NYT writes, citing sources.

Huang has not received a defensive briefing, a warning typically given to Americans targeted by foreign intelligence services, people who spoke to the NYT said. Surveillance of Alice Huang is ongoing, and companies affiliated with her continued buying Nvidia chips this year, they said.

Nvidia stated that Megaspeed is an ordinary regional customer and that it had previously investigated and debunked allegations of chip smuggling to China. “Jensen’s interactions with Ms. Huang are not unusual or unexpected. Meetings with customers are part of a CEO’s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year,” an Nvidia spokesman said.

He added that Nvidia was confident the U.S. government would notify the company if it considered anyone a threat to U.S. industry, and that customers such as Megaspeed receive only ordinary business information, rather than Nvidia trade secrets or information relevant to national security.

Alice Huang did not respond to requests for comment, and it is unclear how closely she remains connected to Megaspeed. The company stated that it takes the allegations “extremely seriously” and is conducting an internal investigation.

The White House, the CIA, and the National Security Agency declined to comment. A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington described the U.S. allegations against Alice Huang as “groundless smears and slanders.”

The U.S. has been investigating Megaspeed since 2024. The investigation began after a Commerce Department official visited the company’s data center in Malaysia and found the site suspicious: Equipment purchased from Nvidia was still in boxes, suggesting it was in transit rather than being installed. Megaspeed’s Malaysian unit bought at least $4.8 billion worth of Nvidia equipment between June 2024 and February 2026, a striking sum for a little-known company, the NYT notes.

Jensen Huang, who is influential at the White House on tech policy, has successfully lobbied for looser AI industry regulations and an easing of restrictions on Nvidia chip sales to China since the start of Trump’s second term. He also negotiated an arrangement with the president under which the government receives 25% of the revenue from certain chips approved for sale to China. Nvidia has also contributed at least $20 million for the construction of a ballroom at the White House, a pet project of the Trump administration. In September, Huang had a prominent seat at a dinner Trump hosted in honor of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The close relationship between the president and Huang has impeded efforts to restrict Nvidia’s overseas chip sales, according to current and former U.S. officials. Some investigations and proposals for trade sanctions involving China or Nvidia have effectively ground to a halt, sources told the NYT.