Nvidia scandal: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is facing intense scrutiny following reports of an alleged relationship with a Chinese businesswoman suspected by US intelligence of being linked to an espionage operation. The controversy has triggered an FBI investigation, congressional scrutiny, an independent board inquiry and a shareholder lawsuit. Nvidia shares have also fallen amid concerns over the potential national security and reputational fallout.
The controversy centres on Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, who is unrelated to Jensen Huang. A former television reporter in China, she later became a senior executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data centre company and one of Nvidia's biggest customers in Southeast Asia.
According to reports by The New York Times, US intelligence agencies discovered that Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen and chip buyer, was allegedly passing information directly to China. Intelligence officials reportedly concluded that she had been recruited by China's Ministry of State Security to target the Nvidia chief in a possible "honey trap" operation. Her current whereabouts are unknown.
Alice Huang served as a senior executive at Megaspeed between March and November 2023. The company has been under US federal investigation since 2024 over allegations that it helped divert export-restricted hardware into China.
US and Singaporean authorities are investigating suspicions that Megaspeed helped circumvent US export restrictions by smuggling more than $2 billion worth of Nvidia AI processors, including H100 and H800 GPUs, into China.