The Nvidia spycase so far
US officials concluded that a woman close to Jensen Huang was working for Chinese intelligence. This is what’s been reported, roughly in the order it happened.
The New York Times reports that US agencies had electronic surveillance on a Chinese businesswoman called Alice Huang, and that it showed a close relationship with an American citizen.
The names of Americans stay hidden in these reports, unless an official asks for one and can show they need it. It’s called unmasking.
Someone asked.
Jensen Huang
This reads like a film, so I’ve laid it out like one. Everything here comes from other people’s reporting and I’ve linked to all of it. The line on the map just joins up the places in the order the story visits them.
None of the reporting says Alice Huang’s been charged with anything. She hasn’t answered any of the reporters trying to reach her, and China’s embassy calls the claims “groundless smears”.
They’re both called Huang and they’re not related. Nearly every article on this has to say so, and now this one has too.
Washington2022
The US stops companies exporting Nvidia’s most advanced chips to China. If you want that computing power in China, you now need another way of getting it.
Singapore2023
Shortly after the ban, a Chinese online gaming company splits off its Singapore subsidiary. It becomes Megaspeed, with Alice Huang listed as managing director. She later describes herself as chief executive.
Megaspeed builds data centres in South East Asia and rents the computing power to Alibaba and other Chinese firms. The Times says companies can legally do that, though some US officials call it a loophole. US officials suspect Megaspeed went further and helped smuggle chips into China. Megaspeed said last year that government reviews found no evidence of that, and Jensen Huang says Nvidia has “counted every one” of the GPUs Megaspeed deployed.
TaipeiJune 2024
After a tech trade show, Jensen Huang and Alice Huang are photographed at a bar with other AI executives, drinking whiskey. A company called NetThunder puts the photo on LinkedIn, which isn’t how this goes in the films.
Within weeks, the Times says, Megaspeed starts buying.
Malaysiafrom June 2024
Between June 2024 and February 2026, Megaspeed’s sister company in Malaysia buys at least $4.8bn of AI equipment containing Nvidia chips, according to trade records the Times obtained. The Times calls that “an exceptional amount of money for a small, obscure company”.
Late in 2024, a US Commerce Department official visits Megaspeed’s data centre in Malaysia and finds the site suspicious. The Nvidia equipment is still packed in boxes, which suggests it’s being shipped in or out and not installed. That inquiry now sits with the Justice Department.
Chinalate 2024
As authorities start watching her, Alice Huang disappears into China for a while, the Wall Street Journal reports. It also says Singapore and Taiwan investigated her ties to China, at one point with physical surveillance teams. Singapore denies it: “there were no such investigations conducted in respect of Alice Huang”.
Mar-a-Lago2025
Until now Huang has seldom visited Washington. With the Trump administration considering a ban on selling Nvidia chips to China, he goes to a donors’ dinner at Mar-a-Lago to argue for those sales. His case is that they slow down Huawei.
He persuades Trump to roll back a prohibition on AI chip sales to China and allow a less powerful chip. The two later strike a deal that lets Nvidia sell its second most powerful chip there, with the US taking a 25% cut. The Times reports that Nvidia later gives at least $20m to Trump’s ballroom fund.
TaipeiMay 2025
A business dinner with other AI suppliers. Taiwanese media catch her giving him a kiss on the cheek and standing behind him while he talks to journalists.
Singapore2025
According to the Times, Singapore’s authorities bring Alice Huang in for questioning, then release her. The police say their investigation into Megaspeed is still going.
Washingtona year ago
The Times reports that Trump is briefed. US intelligence believes Alice Huang is working for China and that she’s close to the man who’s been lobbying him on chips. He chooses not to act, and says now he has no regrets.
According to people briefed on the surveillance, Huang doesn’t get a defensive briefing, the warning sometimes given to Americans being targeted by foreign spies. Nvidia’s position, when asked later, is that it’s “confident that if the U.S. government believes that any person is a threat to American industry, it would let us know”.
Washingtonspring 2026
The Times reports that Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, oversees the drafting of a highly classified memo. It cites intelligence that China’s Ministry of State Security recruited Alice Huang, and people briefed on it say the aim was to collect intelligence on Jensen Huang and potentially influence Nvidia to push for its most advanced chips to be sold to China.
Nvidia says customers don’t ask it to lobby the US government on this.
AlaskaMay 2026
The memo goes round before Trump’s trip to China, and Huang is left off the list of executives going. It’s not clear if that’s connected.
Trump sees the coverage of Huang being absent and asks him to join Air Force One on a layover in Alaska. Trump then drafts a post about the honour of having “the Great Jensen Huang” along.
The White HouseSeptember 2026
Xi Jinping comes for a state dinner. Huang’s at the head table. A few weeks later Nvidia hits a record value of nearly $5.8tn.
New York29 October 2026
The Times publishes. Nvidia says Huang’s interactions with her are “not unusual or unexpected”, and Huang tells Bloomberg the US government never told him of any suspicions.
A day later the Wall Street Journal reports that officials in the US, Singapore and Taiwan suspect she’s a Chinese intelligence source. Singapore denies that part. Three House committee chairs ask Huang for a closed-door briefing. Then the Times names the agency.
“…it was all completely normal and not unusual.”
Jensen Huang, to Bloomberg, 29 October
“I was unfaithful
to my wife.”
Jensen Huang, to Nvidia staff, 8 November
Santa Clara8 November 2026
The memo doesn’t name her. The Times reports that he told the board he’d been intimate with her.
Nvidia’s board opens an independent investigation, overseen by a committee of independent directors with outside counsel. It says it has “no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised”, and Huang stays on as chief executive while it runs.
Trump says he’d “certainly take him” on his next trip to China. “He dealt with somebody, but you know, so does everybody else.”
On Monday the shares fall 5%.
What nobodyhas said yet
- What, if anything, she passed on, and whether it was worth anything.
- Whether Huang knew. Officials didn’t think so when Trump was first briefed. Some senior officials now doubt he could have been unaware.
- Whether any of those chips reached China. The Justice Department has that one. Megaspeed said last year that reviews found no violations.
- Whether she’s still at Megaspeed. Jensen Huang says she’s gone. The House committees’ letter still calls her a Megaspeed executive.
Huang has until 11 November to answer the House committees, who’ve proposed 18 November for the briefing. Nvidia reports earnings later this month. It has no public succession plan.
I’ll add to this as it moves.
Reported allegations are attributed to the outlets that made them.
