President Trump reportedly chose to do nothing in response.
As if Big Tech in 2026 wasn’t already crazy enough, we can now add “Jensen Huang espionage scandal” to the list. The New York Times reports that US officials see the NVIDIA CEO as the target of a Chinese government spy. Wilder still, the report says that President Trump was briefed on the matter a year ago and decided to just… do nothing.
US intelligence agencies reportedly surveilled Alice Huang (no relation to Jensen Huang), a Chinese citizen and executive at Singapore data center firm Megaspeed. That surveillance turned up contact with an American citizen, later identified as Jensen Huang.
America’s spy agencies concluded that Alice Huang is a Chinese intelligence asset passing information to Beijing. Before the espionage allegations turned up, she was already suspected of helping steer advanced NVIDIA chips into China. Megaspeed’s Malaysian sister company bought at least $4.8 billion in NVIDIA-based equipment in under two years. The Times describes that as an unusual amount of business for a small and obscure company.
A thin public profile and a baffling White House response
Alice Huang’s public profile is thin. She described herself as Megaspeed’s CEO. The company reportedly listed her as its managing director for its first eight months before removing her from that role in its corporate paperwork. A Chinese investment fund where she worked described her as a former TV reporter, but The Times was unable to verify that background.
The above photo was posted to NetThunder’s LinkedIn account in 2024, just before Megaspeed began those big chip purchases. It shows Alice Huang sitting close to Jensen Huang, who is drinking with other AI executives.
The CEO of the world’s most valuable chip company being targeted by a Chinese government spy op is a wild story, but not a shocking one. The truly crazy part is that President Trump reportedly took no action. Jensen Huang reportedly never even got a “defensive briefing,” a standard heads-up sometimes given to Americans being targeted by foreign spies.
It isn’t clear why. The Times notes Trump has been wary of anything that might disrupt NVIDIA’s chip sales or further complicate trade with China. (Never mind that he launched the trade war with China with his tariffs.) The report added that it’s unclear whether officials worried that briefing Jensen Huang might tip off Alice Huang, who is still said to be under surveillance. The report doesn’t say what information she may have passed to Beijing.
There’s much more to sift through in the Times’ full report.
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