Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been unfaithful to his wife. The company’s board is investigating whether he was targeted by a Chinese spy. But there is no reason to believe that trade secrets or U.S. national security were compromised, according to a press release from the tech giant.
The information is sensitive because U.S. officials concluded last year that his mistress, Alice Huang, shared information with the Chinese government while working with Nvidia to build data centers in Asia, according to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal.
Alice Huang was CEO of Megaspeed, a company spun off from a Chinese gaming company and registered in Singapore in 2023 - shortly after the U.S. banned exports of AI chips to China.
Drinking whiskey in Taipei
The business idea was to build data centers in Southeast Asia using Nvidia chips, then rent out data capacity. After a couple of years, the company became one of Nvidia’s largest customers in the region and imported chips worth more than $4.6 billion, Bloomberg reports.
But the company is suspected of smuggling the technology to China, which is prohibited. Megaspeed denied the allegations and told Bloomberg last year that it was complying with the law, including U.S. export control regulations.
As Megaspeed’s chip shipments rolled in, Jensen and Alice Huang began spending time together. They drank whiskey with other AI executives at a Taipei bar in June 2024 after a conference. A year later, they had dinner with other industry colleagues, and Taiwanese media filmed Alice kissing Jensen on the cheek while he was being interviewed by reporters, The New York Times reports.
Went underground
U.S. authorities have been investigating Megaspeed’s connections to the Chinese government for more than a year. Singaporean and Taiwanese authorities have also investigated Alice Huang’s links to Chinese intelligence and suspect she was recruited after Beijing realized how close she was to Nvidia’s leadership, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Alice Huang went underground and disappeared in China for a time in late 2024, when authorities began monitoring her, The Wall Street Journal reports. It is currently difficult to determine her whereabouts or whether she still has a role at Megaspeed. Several international media outlets have unsuccessfully tried to reach her for comment.
On Monday, a Chinese government spokesperson denied reports that Alice Huang was a spy.
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