A US intelligence memo reportedly says China recruited a technology executive close to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to gather information about American AI chips. The allegation comes as US officials face separate questions about how they approved Chinese companies to buy Nvidia hardware.
The reported intelligence memo
The memo, circulated earlier this year and reportedly based on US intelligence, claimed that China's Ministry of State Security recruited Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, to spy on Jensen Huang. Megaspeed is an Nvidia customer.
The reported aim was to gather information about American AI chips and potentially influence Nvidia to push for its most advanced chips to be made available in China. The accounts describe Alice Huang and Jensen Huang as close. They are not related.
The memo also reportedly claimed the two had a romantic relationship. The available reports do not establish what information, if any, Alice Huang obtained or passed to Chinese intelligence, or whether the alleged effort influenced Nvidia's decisions.
An Nvidia spokesperson said Jensen Huang's interactions with Alice Huang were not unusual and that the company does not share classified information with customers. Alice Huang also has relationships with senior executives elsewhere in the AI chip industry, including leaders at Gigabyte.
President Donald Trump was briefed last year about the relationship between Alice Huang and Jensen Huang, but took no action, according to the reports. Three House committees have since asked Nvidia's CEO to attend a joint, closed-door briefing about his interactions with the Megaspeed executive.
Questions over an approved chip buyer
A separate examination has raised concerns about a Chinese company approved by the US Commerce Department to buy advanced Nvidia chips. New Matrix appears on a list of firms cleared to handle Nvidia's H200 AI chips, yet its listed office was found empty, with wires hanging from the ceiling.
The company was formed 17 months before the report, and little information about it could be found online. It did not appear in the directory at its listed building, while staff at the industrial park's property management agency said they had no record of it.
New Matrix's owners have ties to a Chinese private equity firm that has been blacklisted by the US government since 2024. The reports raise the possibility that New Matrix could be a front for that firm, although they do not establish that it is one.
The New Matrix case was described as part of a broader pattern in which companies connected to entities subject to national-security-related trade restrictions received approval to buy Nvidia chips. That raises questions about checks by both the Commerce Department and Nvidia.
The stakes for Nvidia's China sales
The Biden administration had restricted Nvidia chip sales to China. The Trump administration relaxed those limits after Nvidia agreed to give the US government a 15 percent cut of sales. Jensen Huang also mounted a lobbying campaign around the restrictions.
An Nvidia spokesperson said the company sells the first and greatest share of its best technology in America. The scrutiny now reaches two different parts of the business: who seeks access to Nvidia's leadership, and who receives permission to buy its chips. Approval is a formal step. An empty office is a less reassuring sign.