US intelligence believes Chinese agent targeted Nvidia CEO — The Guardian

US intelligence agencies believe that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang may have become a target of a suspected Chinese intelligence agent with whom he had business contacts. The Guardian reports, citing a New York Times article.

Suspicions regarding a Megaspeed manager

The person in question is Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, who is not related to the Nvidia chief. She is a manager at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed.

US officials had previously suspected her of smuggling Nvidia chips to China and placed her under surveillance. According to The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, US officials concluded that Huang acted as an asset of Chinese intelligence and passed commercial information to Beijing.

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During the surveillance, US officials also determined, according to the publication, that Alice Huang had developed a close relationship with Jensen Huang.

Nvidia's response

White House officials, The New York Times reports, were concerned about Alice Huang's access to the Nvidia chief because of his close contacts with US President Donald Trump. The Trump administration imposed restrictions on exports of advanced artificial intelligence chips to China on national security grounds, while Megaspeed was suspected of helping circumvent those restrictions.

Nvidia told The New York Times that there was nothing unusual about its chief's contacts with Alice Huang. The company said that meetings with customers are part of a CEO's job and that such customers receive ordinary business information, rather than Nvidia's confidential trade secrets or data important to national security.