NYT: China recruited executive to spy on Nvidia's Jensen Huang; Congress seeks closed-door briefing

The New York Times reported on Friday (November 6) that US intelligence agencies assess that China's Ministry of State Security recruited a technology executive to gather intelligence on Jensen Huang, chief executive of AI chip giant Nvidia, and on the company's most advanced chips. After the report, the chairs of three US House committees asked Huang to attend a closed-door briefing. Nvidia and China both deny the allegations.

Report says executive worked for state security

According to the Times, citing people briefed on the intelligence, the executive said to have worked for China's Ministry of State Security is Alice Huang (also known as Huang Le), a senior executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data centre company. US intelligence assesses that Huang was recruited to collect information on Jensen Huang and Nvidia's most advanced artificial intelligence chips, and to try to persuade Huang to lobby for shipping advanced graphics processing units (GPUs) to China. The two Huangs are not related.

The report rests on a memo that circulated among senior policymakers in the Trump administration last spring, and on people briefed on the intelligence. The Times said the operation dates back to at least 2024, when Alice Huang and Jensen Huang were photographed together at an industry party in Taipei that June, the same year Megaspeed expanded rapidly. Intelligence agencies briefed President Donald Trump on the relationship about a year ago, the Times said, but he chose not to act.

Three House chairmen demand a briefing

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar and Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford wrote to Jensen Huang asking him to attend a joint closed-door briefing on November 18 and to respond by November 11. The letter calls Alice Huang a "publicly reported Chinese intelligence asset." The letter, dated November 4, was released on November 5.

This is not the Times' first report on the matter. On October 29, it reported that US intelligence assessed Alice Huang as an asset gathering information for Beijing who had developed a close relationship with Jensen Huang, and that she had been under US electronic surveillance for at least a year.

Nvidia calls it routine business; China denies

Nvidia spokesperson John Rizzo told the Times that Nvidia does not share classified information with customers and that Jensen Huang's interactions with Alice Huang were routine business for a chief executive meeting customers. Huang told Bloomberg that Nvidia's dealings with Megaspeed were normal and that Alice Huang was no longer with the company. Nvidia also told CNBC that regional cloud customers such as Megaspeed receive only ordinary business information, not sensitive trade secrets or national security information.

A spokesperson for China's embassy in Washington called the reports "unsubstantiated" and "nothing but smears against China"; Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun also rejected the allegations as groundless. Alice Huang did not respond to the Times' requests for comment.

What is established, and what is not

It is important to note that the reporting so far does not establish that Jensen Huang knowingly shared sensitive information, and no public evidence shows that Alice Huang obtained Nvidia's trade secrets. The Times said Huang never received a defensive briefing — the warning intelligence agencies sometimes give Americans targeted by foreign intelligence. The memo cited in the reporting has not been made public, and the allegations have not been tested in court.

Separately, trade-data firm ImportGenius says a Malaysian sister company of Megaspeed bought at least $4.8 billion of AI equipment containing Nvidia chips between June 2024 and February 2026. The Financial Times reported separately that US officials believed the relationship between the two Huangs was romantic, though details have not been publicly confirmed.

(Sources: The New York Times, Bloomberg, CNBC, Financial Times, House Foreign Affairs Committee.)