US memo reportedly says China recruited exec to spy on Nvidia's CEO

A memo circulated earlier this year claimed that technology executive Alice Huang was recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security, the country’s main intelligence agency, to spy on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, according to multiple media reports summarised by TechCrunch on 7 November. The memo was reportedly based on US intelligence, and the New York Times was first to report on it. The document itself has not been published, and every detail below comes from news reports and the statements of the people and companies involved.

The case lands on top of a long-running argument over how Nvidia’s AI chips reach China, and it involves Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company that has already faced questions about restricted hardware.

What the reported US intelligence memo claims

According to the reports, the memo names Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, as a recruit of China’s Ministry of State Security tasked with spying on Jensen Huang. She is no relation to the Nvidia chief executive, and is also identified as Huang Le. The Financial Times subsequently reported that the memo also claimed Jensen Huang had a romantic relationship with Alice Huang. No source shows a response from Nvidia or Jensen Huang addressing that specific claim.

The New York Times had previously reported that Nvidia’s chief executive had been the target of Chinese intelligence. In that earlier coverage, the paper reported that American officials concluded Alice Huang was a Chinese intelligence asset with a close relationship to Jensen Huang. The concern, according to sources cited by the Times, was that she had grown close enough to him to gather information about Nvidia’s plans and about his efforts to persuade the Trump administration to allow more advanced technology to be shipped to China.

Several points in the reporting limit what can be concluded:

• The investigation has not determined what specific information she would have passed on, how valuable it was, or whether the Nvidia CEO was aware of her alleged activities.
• When President Donald Trump was first briefed on the intelligence a year ago, US officials did not believe Jensen Huang knew about the alleged information gathering.
• The US did not inform Nvidia or Jensen Huang of its suspicions.

How the contacts came to light

During US surveillance of Alice Huang, investigators found she was in contact with an American citizen. US intelligence agencies cannot surveil American citizens without a court order, but they can seek “unmasking”, the disclosure of a US person’s identity, when citizens communicate with someone under surveillance; in this case, that revealed communications with Jensen Huang. US agencies had been surveilling Alice Huang for about a year to learn more about her ties with China, according to the Times.

How the story developed from late October to the memo report

This is the first Unicorn API article on this thread. The memo report on 7 November follows roughly two weeks of coverage, summarised below from the sources.

Date (as reported)	Development
About a year ago	Trump is first briefed on the intelligence about Alice Huang; reports say no action was taken
Earlier in 2026	The memo naming Alice Huang circulates
29 October	Jensen Huang tells Bloomberg the dealings with Megaspeed were “normal and not unusual”
30 October	Coverage of the Times investigation details Megaspeed’s chip purchases
2 November	Reports say officials in the US, Singapore and Taiwan are investigating Alice Huang
7 November	Reports describe the memo’s claim that she was recruited by the Ministry of State Security

The sources differ on her current role. TechCrunch describes Alice Huang as an executive at Megaspeed, while Reuters, citing Bloomberg, reports Jensen Huang saying the person was no longer with Megaspeed, and the Times report it summarised referred to a former Megaspeed executive.

How Nvidia, Megaspeed and Beijing respond

Nvidia’s position is that the contacts were routine. A spokesperson told the Times that Jensen Huang’s interactions with Alice Huang were “not unusual,” and that the company does not share classified information with its customers. In a statement emailed to TechCrunch, the spokesperson said:

“Jensen’s interactions with Ms. Huang are not unusual or unexpected. Meetings with customers are part of a C.E.O.’s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year.”

The company added that “our regional cloud customers receive ordinary business information — not sensitive NVIDIA trade secrets — and zero information relevant to national security”. Nvidia also said it was confident that “if the US government believes that any person is a threat to American industry, it would let us know”.

Jensen Huang himself told Bloomberg that his interactions with the executive were typical of those with Chinese customers and executives, and he has called the spying claims “groundless speculation”.

Megaspeed says it takes the accusations seriously, has hired outside legal counsel to investigate and will cooperate with authorities. The Chinese Embassy in Washington has rejected the allegations. The Singapore Police Force says its investigations into Megaspeed are ongoing and declined further comment.

Asked by reporters whether he still trusted Jensen Huang, Trump said: “I would like to say yes. I mean, unless we find out something to the contrary”. He added: “I’ve always found Jensen Huang to be very aboveboard. But you know, you’re dealing in a very complex issue. We hope everything’s okay with Jensen”.

Why Megaspeed is under scrutiny over Nvidia chips

The espionage claim is tied to a separate question: whether Megaspeed helped Chinese companies obtain restricted Nvidia hardware. Megaspeed has been publicly accused of helping ship embargoed Nvidia hardware into China, including in 2025 reporting by the Times and Bloomberg. It is also alleged to have deployed GPUs in Malaysia and Indonesia that appear to serve customers in China remotely. In 2025, the Times reported that the Commerce Department had investigated Megaspeed over concerns that it was reselling restricted chips to Chinese companies to sidestep export rules.

The sums involved are large. According to business records cited by the Times, a Malaysia-based sister company acquired at least $4.8 billion in advanced AI equipment incorporating Nvidia technology between June 2024 and February of this year. US authorities suspect some of that infrastructure may have given Chinese companies access to export-restricted technology, but it is not proven that all of the equipment ended up in China or that the deals were illegal.

Megaspeed has denied wrongdoing. It has said it is “a Singapore-based company, operating fully in compliance with all applicable laws, including US export control regulations,” and that several government investigations had found “no evidence of any violations concerning the illicit transfer of chips or any illegal activities”. Nvidia said its compliance teams found no untoward activity, and Jensen Huang told Bloomberg the company had checked that Megaspeed did not illegally divert its AI chips to China:

“We’ve studied all their deployments of our GPUs and counted every one.”

Nvidia has argued that smuggling of its advanced AI chips into China is not a significant problem despite US export restrictions. Other cases show enforcement is active: in March, Supermicro cofounder Wally Liaw was arrested on charges of violating US export-control laws by allegedly working to smuggle $2.5 billion worth of Nvidia GPU servers into China; the company denies wrongdoing and Liaw has pleaded not guilty.

The H200 deal, lobbying and the New Matrix question

The allegations arrive while Nvidia’s China business is already politically exposed. China accounted for a fifth of Nvidia’s sales before the US limited chip exports. Lobbying by Nvidia and Jensen Huang, including private dinners with Trump and a $20 million donation to the White House Ballroom, has helped reverse some Biden-era restrictions. Limited quantities of Nvidia H200 GPUs may now be exported to China, with the US government taking a 25 percent cut, an arrangement Jensen Huang negotiated. China, for its part, enforces its own import restrictions on the hardware to encourage domestic competitors.

A separate Times report examined New Matrix, a Chinese company authorized by the Commerce Department to buy advanced Nvidia chips. At the office address New Matrix listed, reporters found only “a hollow gray shell,” raising concerns that it could be a front for a blacklisted private equity firm. Unicorn API covered that report in US cleared an empty office in China to buy Nvidia’s H200 AI chips. Responding to the reporting, the Nvidia spokesperson said the company sells “the first, best and most of our technology in America”.

Commentary in the coverage suggests why the US may not have acted on the intelligence: Nvidia is central to the US AI industry, and semiconductor exports are one of the most sensitive issues in US-China negotiations. That is analysis by one outlet, not a stated government reason.

What it means for teams that build on Nvidia compute

Nothing in the sources indicates any change to Nvidia products, pricing or availability as a result of these reports. The practical relevance for builders is indirect, and it sits in the supply chain:

• Regional GPU clouds are in the spotlight. The case centres on a Southeast Asian AI cloud and data center operator, and on allegations that GPUs deployed in Malaysia and Indonesia serve users in China remotely. Teams that rent compute from regional providers depend on those providers staying within export rules, and investigations are ongoing in more than one country.
• Export policy is a moving target. The current H200 arrangement came out of lobbying and negotiation, and the New Matrix report has raised questions about how buyers are vetted. A tightening of restrictions could have commercial and diplomatic repercussions, according to one analysis.
• Nvidia’s compliance claims are being tested. Nvidia says it counts customer GPU deployments and that its compliance teams found no untoward activity at Megaspeed. Investigators in the US, Singapore and Taiwan are reportedly looking at the same company.

The open questions are significant. The memo has not been released, the reported claims have not been publicly confirmed by the US government in the sources, and investigators have not established what, if anything, was passed to Beijing.

What to watch next

• Official findings. Whether US, Singapore or Taiwan authorities announce results from their investigations into Megaspeed and Alice Huang.
• Megaspeed’s internal review. What the company’s outside counsel concludes, and whether it is made public.
• Export licences. Whether scrutiny of buyers such as New Matrix changes how the Commerce Department authorizes Nvidia chip sales to China.
• The White House position. Trump has said he hopes “everything’s okay with Jensen”; any shift in that stance could affect the H200 arrangement.