US officials have concluded that Alice Huang, a senior executive at Singapore-based data centre company Megaspeed, was a Chinese intelligence asset who funnelled information to Beijing, according to people briefed on classified surveillance.
The findings have caused particular concern because Huang developed a close relationship with Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, the US company at the centre of the global race to develop advanced artificial intelligence technology.
Donald Trump was briefed on the intelligence about a year ago but decided not to take action, officials said. The president has been reluctant to disrupt Nvidia’s chip sales, which are helping to support the US economy and stock market, or further strain trade relations with China.
The surveillance reportedly showed that Alice Huang was in contact with an American citizen. After the identity of that person was disclosed through the US intelligence process known as “unmasking”, officials identified him as Jensen Huang.
It is not known what information Alice Huang is alleged to have passed to Beijing, how valuable it was or when she is said to have begun collecting intelligence. US officials have also not disclosed which agencies were involved in monitoring her.
Jensen Huang has not received a defensive briefing, which can be given to Americans believed to be targeted by foreign intelligence services. One possible reason is that warning him could have alerted Alice Huang that she was under surveillance.
The surveillance is continuing, according to the people briefed on it. Companies associated with Megaspeed have also continued purchasing Nvidia chips this year.
Questions over Nvidia chip sales
Megaspeed was already under investigation over suspicions that it was helping China evade US restrictions on access to advanced Nvidia processors.
The US Commerce Department began examining the company in late 2024 after an official visited a data centre under construction in Malaysia and found Nvidia equipment still packed in boxes. The inquiry was transferred to the Justice Department this year, officials said.
Megaspeed buys chips to build data centres and rents their computing capacity to Chinese companies, including Alibaba, according to people familiar with its operations and technology analysts. It has bought Nvidia products through the American arm of Inspur, a Chinese server company whose parent has been blacklisted by the US over alleged links to China’s military.
Trade records cited by investigators indicate that Megaspeed’s Malaysian sister company bought at least 4.8 billion US dollars’ worth of advanced computing equipment containing Nvidia chips and technology between June 2024 and February 2026.
US officials suspect that some chips acquired by Megaspeed may have been moved illegally into China. Singaporean authorities questioned Alice Huang in 2025 as part of their own inquiry but later released her.
Nvidia continues to list Megaspeed as a cloud partner, while the company has described itself as a leading business partner of the chipmaker in a recent job advertisement. A person familiar with Megaspeed’s operations said Alice Huang had become less active in the company following the US investigations.
Nvidia said Megaspeed was an ordinary regional customer and that it had previously investigated and rejected claims that the Singaporean company was smuggling chips to China.
“Jensen’s interactions with Ms. Huang are not unusual or unexpected. Meetings with customers are part of a CEO’s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year,” said John Rizzo, a spokesman for Nvidia.
Mr Rizzo said the company was “confident that if the US government believes that any person is a threat to American industry, it would let us know”. He added that customers such as Megaspeed received ordinary business information rather than sensitive Nvidia trade secrets or material relevant to national security.
Megaspeed said its current leadership took the allegations “extremely seriously” and had appointed outside lawyers to conduct an internal investigation. It said the US government had been notified that the company was committed to co-operating.
Alice Huang did not respond to requests for comment. The Chinese Embassy in Washington described the allegations as a campaign of “groundless smears and slanders” against China.
Jensen Huang’s access to the Trump administration
The intelligence has raised concerns in Washington about whether Alice Huang could have gained information about Nvidia or about the Trump administration’s approach to technology exports to China through her relationship with Jensen Huang.
The Nvidia chief has become an influential figure in the debate over chip controls during Mr Trump’s second term. He has lobbied for looser restrictions and negotiated an arrangement allowing the sale of certain Nvidia chips to China in return for the US government taking a 25 per cent share of the revenue.
Current and former US officials said the close relationship between Mr Trump and Jensen Huang had hindered some efforts to restrict Nvidia’s overseas sales. They said investigations and proposed sanctions involving China or Nvidia had stalled within the Commerce Department, which oversees chip exports.
Last year, Mr Trump approved the sale of an older generation of Nvidia chips to China. He later considered allowing the sale of more powerful technology before deciding against it.
Jensen Huang and his wife, Lori Huang, have met Mr Trump at his Florida residence and attended a state dinner for China’s President Xi Jinping at the White House. Nvidia later donated at least 20 million US dollars to Mr Trump’s ballroom fund and pledged to invest 500 billion US dollars in manufacturing in the United States, according to people familiar with the matters.
Alice Huang and Jensen Huang were photographed together in Taipei in June 2024 after a technology trade show, and were seen together again at a business dinner in the city the following year.
It remains unclear how closely Alice Huang is still connected to Megaspeed. The company continues to promote data centre projects in south-east Asia, including a large development in Malaysia, and has reportedly already secured the Nvidia equipment needed for the construction.
