Nvidia row: Jensen Huang’s lover not a Chinese spy? US intelligence conflicted about evidence

The Chinese businesswoman, Alice Huang, who was in a relationship with Nvidia’s ex-CEO Jensen Huang, is in the limelight as reports emerge that American intelligence agencies are unsure of her identity as a suspected Chinese spy. Earlier assessments had identified Alice as a Chinese intelligence agent who was spying on Jensen Huang and senior US policymakers.

According to a CNN report, US intelligence agencies have not yet established a direct link between Alice and China’s Ministry of State Security. US officials reportedly remain conflicted about the evidence against Alice Huang.

The FBI has reportedly been investigating Huang’s affair for a year, and a report had emerged that information originating from someone close to him has reached the Chinese intelligence.

However, Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “No conclusions have been reached by the Department of Justice, or by me, or by Director Patel, about who she is or is not.”

The report said that intercepted communications, part of the evidence collected against Alice, reportedly did not prove that she knowingly sent information back to Beijing.

However, some in the Trump administration believe that her position as a successful businesswoman in one of America’s most powerful companies still raises counterintelligence risks.

What are the allegations against Alice Huang?

Alice Huang was an executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, a cloud computing and AI infrastructure provider. She was initially a journalist with the Chinese state television, and her rapid transition into the business industry raised suspicion.

Megaspeed is the largest buyer of Nvidia chips in Southeast Asia. However, since 2024, it has been under investigation by the US Justice and Commerce departments. The company was alleged to have diverted export-restricted Nvidia chips to China.

Despite spending billions on data centre equipment, Megaspeed’s Singapore headquarters was reportedly nearly empty, with only two documented staff members. Other offices across Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia were found inside shopping malls or old storefronts.

Alice Huang left Singapore in February and was barred from re-entering the country by the country’s Home Affairs Ministry. However, the ministry said that the restriction and related investigation did not concern espionage.

A separate media investigation also revealed that Alice held a stake in a data centre serving Huawei, one of Nvidia’s leading competitors.

Research by Texas-based private intelligence firm Tesari, which was shared exclusively with CNBC, found that Alice played a key role in funding a data centre whose main client was the Chinese tech giant Huawei.

At the centre of the problem is Shanghai Hexi, a financial firm that invests in technology and data centres. Before joining Megaspeed, Alice reportedly co-owned Shanghai Hexi. Kang Wei, Alice’s husband, was the founder of the company.

The company previously faced a penalty for illegal stock trading during a restricted period, tied to the corporate takeover of a company called Huiqui Technology.

In 2021, the firm acquired a 27 per cent stake in Shanghai Century Longteng, a data centre developer. Century Longteng held a controlling stake in Shenzhen Yifeng Technology, a data centre facility in China whose key customer was Huawei Cloud.

Huang’s firm also guaranteed loans to finance the Shenzhen facility, extending its involvement beyond an equity investment. Alice’s husband became an executive at Longteng and attended the signing of its agreement with Huawei.

While the investigation could not verify whether the Shenzhen facility itself acquired Nvidia GPUs, Century Longteng’s majority shareholder began purchasing Nvidia chips in 2023. Alice’s firm exited its investment in Century Longteng in 2024.

In 2024, Nvidia identified Huawei as a major competitor across cloud computing, processors and networking equipment.

“This activity, which surfaced through our analysis of Alice’s network, warrants a national security and counterproliferation investigation,” Brian Andersen, Tesari's vice-president for national security applications, told CNBC.