Alleged spy in Nvidia scandal is in Beijing, Bloomberg says

Alice Huang, the Megaspeed International executive whom U.S. officials suspect of spying for China, has gone back to China and is living in Beijing with the knowledge of security officials, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg said it was unclear when or why she traveled to the capital, or what she may be doing there. Her location has been one of the central open questions in a scandal that now threatens Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's position at the chipmaker.bloomberg.com

Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ↗ 0.39% said it could not immediately verify the report. China's Foreign Ministry has rejected the spy allegation as "unsubstantiated," calling it "nothing but smears against China."apnews.com+1

A widening crisis at Nvidia

Bloomberg's report came on a day of fast-moving developments. The Wall Street Journal News Corp ↗ 0.40% reported that Nvidia's board is preparing to push out Huang, and Nvidia shares fell after the close of trading. Earlier on Wednesday, The New York Times ↗ 0.17% reported that Huang had also had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of health care, who reports directly to him. Nvidia, Huang and Powell have not confirmed that report.techcrunch.com+1

On Sunday, November 8, Huang told employees he had been unfaithful to his wife. He did not name the woman, but he tied the admission to "the national security concerns raised in news reports," according to TechCrunch. The board opened an independent investigation and hired Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to help. President Trump has said the FBI is looking into the matter, and a proposed shareholder class action has been filed in San Jose, Reuters reported. House Republicans have also threatened to subpoena Huang if he does not agree to a closed-door briefing, according to Yahoo Finance.ca.finance.yahoo.com+2

Who is Alice Huang

Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, is not related to the Nvidia CEO. She is a former Chinese television reporter who became a director of Singapore-based Megaspeed in 2023, the Associated Press reported. The company calls itself an Nvidia cloud partner and has faced U.S. scrutiny over claims that it sent advanced chips to China. Megaspeed has denied any illicit chip transfers. Public records show she left Megaspeed's board and transferred her shares, but a May report from short seller Culper Research quoted an employee who said she was "actually still our boss."apnews.com

The Times reported last month that U.S. officials had concluded she was recruited to push Nvidia to make its most advanced chips more available in China. Taiwan says it is actively looking into her and Megaspeed. Singapore is investigating Megaspeed but has said it is not investigating Alice Huang. On Sunday, Nvidia's board said it had "no reason to believe" that national security or company secrets were compromised.apnews.com