Alice Huang reshaped Nvidia chip buyer before meeting CEO

A Chinese executive whom U.S. intelligence officials have concluded is a Chinese asset met Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at a Singapore restaurant in December 2023. Shortly before that, she had restructured the company that would go on to buy billions of dollars' worth of his firm's AI chips, according to a New York Times The New York Times Company ↗ 0.57% profile published Tuesday, November 10, and carried by The Seattle Times. The Times reports that Alice Huang's work with Megaspeed put her in the middle of a large effort to gather AI chips across Southeast Asia and give Chinese companies access to them.nytimes.com+1

The profile comes after Jensen Huang admitted on Sunday, November 8, that he had an affair with her. Nvidia's board has opened an independent investigation. The Times had earlier reported that China's Ministry of State Security recruited her. The two are not related.nytimes.com

From Shanghai finance to chips

Alice Huang's Chinese name is Huang Le. According to her online résumé, she worked as a television reporter before joining HSBC's ↘ 0.38% private bank and CITIC Securities. She is closely linked to fund manager Kang Wei, who has been introduced as her husband. In 2023 she used a British Virgin Islands entity to buy the Singapore arm of a gaming company called 7Road and renamed it Megaspeed. Later that year she moved it to a Singaporean shell company. Four days after that ownership change, Nvidia named Megaspeed a cloud partner, according to the Times. Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ↗ 0.10% reviewed more than 30 records and reported that she became Megaspeed's controlling shareholder in March 2023.seattletimes.com+1

Megaspeed eventually secured more than $4 billion in Nvidia hardware. Alibaba ↘ 2.52% became its main customer, the Times reported. The Information, as summarized by Digital Trends, reported that a wider network linked to her helped move at least $7.5 billion in chips to Chinese firms. Those claims have not been officially verified.digitaltrends.com

Scrutiny on three fronts

In late 2024, a U.S. Commerce Department official inspected a Megaspeed data center and found some Nvidia equipment still in boxes. Taiwan monitored her visits at Washington's suggestion. Singapore barred her from leaving the country in 2025 during an import-declaration probe, which a source said found insufficient evidence against her. Singapore's home affairs ministry has denied investigating her for intelligence links but said its inquiries into Megaspeed are continuing.charlotteobserver.com+1

The Justice Department now leads the federal investigation into Megaspeed. President Trump said the FBI is looking into the matter and that Jensen Huang told him he had "no idea" she was a spy. A shareholder has also sued Nvidia, accusing it of misleading investors. House lawmakers have scheduled a closed-door briefing for November 18.smh.com.au+3

Denials

Megaspeed denies any wrongdoing. Nvidia's board says it has "no reason to believe" national security or company secrets were compromised. Beijing called the claims "baseless and purely slanderous smears against China". Meanwhile, Megaspeed is nearing completion of the first phase of a Malaysian data center for which it has already secured AI chips.abc7.com+2