Chinese Intelligence Reportedly Tried to Spy on NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, The New York Times Says
According to The New York Times, China's Ministry of State Security recruited Alice Huang, a senior employee at Singapore's Megaspeed, to gather information on US AI plans and influence NVIDIA's chief. The Financial Times reports that US officials believe she and Jensen Huang were in a romantic relationship.
The US newspaper The New York Times has published new details about a Chinese attempt to spy on Jensen Huang, the head of US chipmaker NVIDIA. NVIDIA is the world's leading maker of artificial intelligence (AI) chips, so its chief's influence over US decisions on technology exports to China is significant.
How the operation worked
The report says Alice Huang, a senior employee at the Singapore data centre company Megaspeed, was involved. She was reportedly recruited by China's Ministry of State Security, the country's main intelligence agency, comparable to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The operation aimed to obtain information on US AI plans and to try to influence Huang himself. China hoped the NVIDIA chief would persuade the US government to allow exports of the newest and most powerful AI chips to the country. Huang has previously managed to sway US decision-makers into permitting sales of certain chip models on the Chinese market.
The romantic relationship claim
The Financial Times reports that US officials, relying on American intelligence information, believe Jensen Huang and Alice Huang were in a romantic relationship. Information about the possible espionage attempt was passed to the president and certain senior officials before an official visit to Beijing, which NVIDIA's chief and Elon Musk also attended. No further action was taken, and Huang was not officially warned that a Chinese intelligence operation was targeting him.
Megaspeed's ties to NVIDIA
Megaspeed is one of NVIDIA's largest customers and has bought AI chips worth several billion euros over the years. The company builds data centres in Southeast Asia and leases their computing capacity to tech giants such as Alibaba, effectively giving Chinese companies access to NVIDIA's most advanced technology, which cannot be imported directly into China.
Megaspeed's name has also come up in connection with suspicions of chip smuggling, but NVIDIA's internal investigation found no violations.
