WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies believe a Chinese executive who built a close relationship with Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang has acted as an operative funneling information to Beijing, according to a report by The New York Times.
The executive, identified as Alice Huang or Huang Le, helps run Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center operator. She is not related to the Nvidia leader. While American officials were initially placing her under electronic surveillance over concerns about illicit semiconductor transfers to China, investigators determined she was also passing commercial information to the Chinese government, the Times reported.
Intelligence officials grew concerned about her access because Jensen Huang maintains regular communication with President Donald Trump, as the administration treats leadership in artificial intelligence as a paramount national security priority. Trump received a briefing concerning the surveillance findings roughly one year ago and chose not to take action, according to the report.
Nvidia Defends Dealings With Customer
Nvidia firmly pushed back against suggestions that the relationship compromised proprietary or sensitive data. A company spokesperson told media outlets that Jensen Huang’s discussions with Alice Huang were neither unexpected nor unusual, noting that his chief executive duties include meeting with thousands of business clients each year.
“Meetings with customers are part of a CEO’s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year,” an Nvidia spokesperson told the New York Post. The company told CNET and The Guardian that regional cloud operators such as Megaspeed receive standard commercial details rather than proprietary trade secrets or national security information.
An Nvidia spokesperson also told Agence France-Presse that claims Megaspeed smuggled hardware into China “were thoroughly investigated and debunked last year.”
Scrutiny Over Billions in Chip Orders
Megaspeed has emerged as a major customer in the global scramble for high-performance computing hardware. A Malaysian sister enterprise acquired at least $4.8 billion in Nvidia processors between June 2024 and February 2026, the New York Post reported, citing the Times. Megaspeed also rents computing capacity to Chinese corporations, including Alibaba.
Federal authorities have scrutinized whether the Singaporean entity served as a conduit to bypass U.S. export controls aimed at restricting Beijing’s access to state-of-the-art AI processors. Bloomberg reported that Megaspeed imported approximately 136,000 Nvidia graphics processing units through November 2025, yet company inspectors discovered only a small fraction of the newest chips during a physical visit to the firm’s data center facilities.
The U.S. Department of Commerce examined the firm’s export activities and forwarded its findings to the Justice Department earlier this year, according to the Post. Singaporean police questioned Alice Huang in 2025 before releasing her without charges.
Beijing Rejects Espionage Claims
Chinese officials strongly dismissed the American allegations on Friday. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters during a scheduled briefing in Beijing that the assertions amounted to “groundless speculation and is nothing more than an attempt to smear China.”
Liu Chang, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, separately told the Post that Beijing “opposes vilifying Chinese citizens by peddling the so-called ‘Chinese spy’ narrative.”
Alice Huang has not been formally charged with any crime in the United States, and U.S. officials have not publicly detailed what specific information she may have passed to Beijing. Megaspeed previously engaged outside counsel to review the matter, the Times reported, while representatives for the company and Alice Huang did not respond to requests for comment.
