Thriller at the top of Nvidia: AI powerhouse targeted by China in secret surveillance operations

An espionage case centering on the Chinese "invasion" of the critical artificial intelligence sector is triggering alarm in the US, bringing Nvidia's powerful chief executive, Jensen Huang, and covert US intelligence surveillance into the spotlight. According to an investigative report by the New York Times, American authorities concluded that Alice Huang, an executive at the Singapore-based firm Megaspeed, was gathering information on behalf of Beijing while developing close contacts with the Nvidia head. The case assumes even greater dimensions as, according to the report, Donald Trump was briefed on the findings approximately a year earlier without immediate action ensuing. At the center of the controversy is the potential leakage of critical information to China at a time when Washington is attempting to restrict Beijing's access to advanced chips—a crucial technological weapon in the global competition for artificial intelligence dominance.

What has happened

A top executive at a Singapore-based data center company was under investigation amid suspicions that she was funneling advanced Nvidia artificial intelligence chips to China. Subsequently, American officials concluded that the woman acted as an operative for Chinese intelligence services, transmitting intelligence back to Beijing. However, according to the report, what followed proved even more concerning. Surveillance of Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, a Chinese national, revealed that she had cultivated a close relationship with Jensen Huang, the chief executive officer of Nvidia. For years, Washington has sought to deprive China of the technology required to match or surpass the United States in the intense global race for artificial intelligence dominance. The revelation that Beijing was receiving briefings from a woman with direct access to Huang—one of the most powerful figures in the AI revolution and a prominent ally of President Donald Trump—sounded alarm bells in the White House.

Trump did not react

Roughly a year ago, Trump was briefed on intelligence findings that had not been previously publicized, yet chose not to take action. Trump remains cautious regarding moves that could disrupt Nvidia's chip sales—which contribute to economic growth and stock market gains—or further complicate trade relations with China, avoiding measures that might disrupt bilateral trade relations.

The role of Alice Huang

American officials already suspected that Huang was helping China bypass restrictions on its access to advanced AI chips. The revelation, however, that she was channeling intelligence directly to Beijing raised even more disturbing possibilities. Among these was the likelihood that Nvidia's CEO was aware of Trump's thinking on an issue of vital importance to both countries, which is expected to take center stage during the American president's visit to China next month. Concurrently, questions emerged over whether the woman was gathering intelligence on Nvidia itself, a company uniquely responsible for maintaining the United States technological advantage in developing advanced AI models. According to individuals briefed on the surveillance, Huang has not received a security notification—a warning occasionally issued to Americans targeted by foreign intelligence services. They noted that surveillance of Alice Huang is ongoing and that companies linked to her continued purchasing Nvidia chips well into the current year. Nvidia stated that Megaspeed, the firm where Huang worked, was a routine regional customer and that it had previously investigated and dismissed as groundless allegations that the Singapore-based company was smuggling chips to China. John Rizzo, an Nvidia spokesperson, stated: "Jensen's contacts with Huang are neither unusual nor unexpected. Meetings with customers are part of a CEO's job. Jensen speaks with thousands of customer corporate executives every year." Nvidia is "confident that if the US government believed any individual posed a threat to American industry, it would inform us," Rizzo added. Customers like Megaspeed, he added, "receive standard business information, not sensitive Nvidia trade secrets and no national security information." In a statement to the New York Times, Megaspeed indicated that its "current management" is treating the matter "with the utmost seriousness and is committed to uncovering the facts behind these allegations." It added that it has hired outside legal counsel to conduct a thorough internal investigation and has informed the US government of its full willingness to cooperate, reflecting deep corporate governance scrutiny.

China's response

When asked about the American authorities' conclusion that Alice Huang was gathering intelligence for Beijing, Liu Chang, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, stated that the United States is waging a campaign of "baseless smears and slanders" against China, highlighting ongoing geopolitical diplomatic friction.

Unresolved internal assessments

When Trump was initially briefed on the intelligence last year, US officials did not believe the Nvidia executive knew Huang was gathering information for China. It remains unclear whether intelligence agencies have since revised their assessment. Nevertheless, some senior Trump administration officials doubt that Huang could have been entirely unaware of the role the woman was playing on behalf of China. Questions regarding whether Megaspeed supplied China with AI chips had become public knowledge through reports by the New York Times and Bloomberg last year, fueling ongoing technology export controls.

Trump's relations with Huang

During Trump's second term, Huang has successfully lobbied the US administration to relax regulations governing artificial intelligence companies and lift stricter restrictions on Nvidia chip sales to China. Concurrently, he negotiated an agreement with Trump that allowed the US government to acquire a 25% stake in the revenues of specific Nvidia chips permitted for sale in China. The American president's close relationship with Huang has hampered efforts to restrict outbound Nvidia chip sales, according to current and former US officials. They noted that certain investigations and proposed trade sanctions concerning China or Nvidia were effectively frozen at the Department of Commerce, the agency responsible for regulating chip exports, exposing potential cracks in export compliance enforcement. Nvidia has stated that it complies with the law and that there is no evidence its chips are being smuggled to China. Rizzo stated that the Chinese government has "blocked American AI chips, protecting its own industry."

Unanswered questions

Many questions surrounding the case remain unanswered, at least publicly. It is unclear whether the decision to withhold briefings from Huang was linked to the need to protect ongoing secret surveillance. Informing him could have alerted Huang that she was under observation—a common reason why intelligence agencies hesitate to warn potential targets of foreign services. It could not be ascertained which intelligence agency or agencies participated in tracking Alice Huang or what prompted them to launch the operation. Furthermore, the precise circumstances under which the woman began gathering intelligence for Beijing, what information she transmitted, and its value to China remain unknown, leaving significant gaps in intelligence community assessments.

Huang's striking rise

A previous New York Times article detailing Huang described her meteoric and somewhat mysterious ascent. The Chinese businesswoman and investor ultimately secured a top position at Megaspeed, which the US Department of Commerce began suspecting toward the end of the Biden administration of helping China circumvent American bans and gain access to Nvidia chip computing power. The US government has been investigating Megaspeed since late 2024, when a Commerce Department official visited the company's data center in Malaysia and observed suspicious characteristics. Nvidia's equipment remained inside crates, indicating it was either being transported to the facility or removed rather than installed. Singapore also conducted its own investigation into Megaspeed. In 2025, country authorities summoned Huang for questioning but subsequently released her. The US Commerce Department's investigation into Megaspeed was transferred this year to the Department of Justice, according to administration officials. Since 2022, the US government has restricted exports of Nvidia's most advanced chips to China. Despite these measures, certain companies have been caught illegally channeling them across Chinese borders. Other firms have legally established businesses purchasing large quantities of chips, building data centers in Southeast Asia, and subsequently leasing their computing power to Chinese entities, complicating global semiconductor supply chains.

The role of Megaspeed

Megaspeed operates essentially as a middleman. It has purchased Nvidia chips through the American subsidiary of Inspur, a Chinese server manufacturing firm. Inspur's parent company is on the US blacklist, accused of funneling technology to the Chinese military. The American subsidiary, however, remains unsanctioned. Megaspeed has subsequently made its computing power available to Chinese firms, including Alibaba. American officials believe the company is part of a broader international effort by Chinese enterprises to secure access to the chips required to develop and operate artificial intelligence systems. Investigators also suspect that some Nvidia chips acquired by Megaspeed end up illegally in China. According to trade records obtained by trade data platform ImportGenius, Megaspeed's sister company in Malaysia purchased advanced AI hardware, including Nvidia chips and technology, worth at least 4.8 billion dollars between June 2024 and February 2026—an exceptionally large sum for a small and little-known firm, raising alarms over cross-border technology transfers. Nvidia and Megaspeed continued cooperating through the current year. Limited available data for much of the year shows that Megaspeed and affiliated entities kept purchasing Nvidia products, frequently through intermediaries. To prevent illicit chip diversion to China, Nvidia evaluates buyers before approving a purchase and, in some instances, subsequently audits whether the equipment remains in their possession. The company still lists Megaspeed on its website as a cloud service partner. Megaspeed advertised this partnership as recently as this month. Megaspeed continues to serve its primary client, Alibaba, according to an individual familiar with company operations and other technology sector analysts.

Social and professional ties

In June 2024, mere weeks before Megaspeed's purchases began, photos posted to LinkedIn showed Huang alongside Huang at a bar in Taipei following a local technology exposition. The two were drinking whiskey with other AI industry executives. A year later, in May 2025, the pair were spotted together again leaving a Taipei restaurant following a business dinner with other suppliers. Ms. Huang waited behind Huang while he conversed with Taiwanese journalists outside the restaurant. These details were outlined in a New York Times report last October. The more serious intelligence regarding Huang, however, remained a tightly guarded secret within the US government, underlining the sensitivity of covert intelligence operations.

Secret surveillance

Individuals familiar with the matter indicated that American intelligence agencies electronically monitored Huang. The surveillance revealed that the woman was communicating with an American citizen. American intelligence agencies generally cannot lawfully monitor US citizens without a court warrant. When surveillance uncovers communications involving US citizens, however, their identity can be revealed to government agencies documenting a need for the specific information through a process known as unmasking. In this instance, the process revealed that the American citizen was Huang. Prior to 2025, Huang rarely visited Washington and avoided politics. However, when the Trump administration weighed banning Nvidia chip sales to China, Huang and his wife traveled to Mar-a-Lago, the president's private club and residence in Florida. There, they met with Trump during a high-level dinner for major donors, aiming to persuade him to permit chip manufacturing firms to continue business operations with Beijing. According to individuals briefed on the discussion, the Nvidia chief reportedly impressed the president by describing his personal and professional journey.

Nvidia subsequently donated at least 20 million dollars to the fund for constructing Trump's ballroom, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company also pledged to invest 500 billion dollars in US domestic production. When Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited the White House for a state dinner last month, Huang sat at the head table. Last year, Trump approved the sale of an older generation of Nvidia chips to China in exchange for a revenue share. As the American president sought improved relations with China ahead of his meeting with Xi, he viewed Huang's push to permit sales of even more powerful technology to the Chinese favorably. This prospect drew pushback from certain administration officials and congressional Republicans before Trump ultimately decided against proceeding. Individuals tracking the interactions between the two men estimate that Trump has been influenced by the public praise Huang directs toward him, as well as the immense wealth and business success of Nvidia's chief executive, shaping executive branch decision-making.

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