The Chinese woman accused by US intelligence of honey-trapping the chief executive of the world’s largest AI-chip company had reportedly boasted that she could obtain its technology despite Washington’s export restrictions.
Alice Huang presented Beijing-based investors with a proposal last year to secure Nvidia’s highly sought-after graphics processing units (GPUs), according to the Financial Times.
Ms Huang reportedly said she had “no problem securing GPUs”, despite a US ban preventing Chinese companies from acquiring Nvidia’s most advanced chips.
During an investment pitch for a data-centre project in Singapore, she did not disclose her alleged relationship with Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, who is married and is not related to her.
The United States introduced stringent export controls on Nvidia’s technology as part of efforts to prevent Chinese President Xi Jinping from achieving his goal of making China the world’s leading artificial-intelligence superpower by 2030.
Nvidia shares plunged on Monday after Mr Huang acknowledged having an affair with Ms Huang, months after US intelligence reportedly identified her as a Chinese spy.
In a memo to staff on Sunday, the 63-year-old executive wrote: “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did.”
Nvidia has commissioned an independent investigation into the affair. The company briefly lost about £292 billion in market value—roughly 9 per cent—in minutes on Monday, a fall equivalent to the combined value of HSBC and Barclays. Its shares later recovered some ground but remained down 4 per cent by the evening, leaving the company valued at approximately £3 trillion.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang is pictured at a party with Alice Huang in June 2024
Mr Huang admitted being “unfaithful” to his wife, Lori Huang, who is pictured with him during a visit to the White House on September 24
According to unverified online biographies, Ms Huang previously worked as a reporter for Chinese state television and later spent time in private equity before founding Megaspeed International in 2023.
Within a year, the previously inactive company had become south-east Asia’s biggest purchaser of Nvidia chips. Weeks before the purchases began, Ms Huang was photographed drinking whisky in Taipei with Taiwan-born American businessman Jensen Huang—the first known images of the pair together.
Megaspeed’s imports reportedly exceeded £3.6 billion as it established facilities across south-east Asia and leased computing capacity to Chinese technology giant Alibaba.
The scale of the investment attracted scrutiny in Washington. Ms Huang was reportedly placed under surveillance in late 2024 and named as a spy in a US intelligence report earlier this year.
However, former US President Donald Trump, described as a close ally of Mr Huang, took no action, the New York Times reported.
Theresa Fallon, director of the Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies in Brussels, said: “It is always amazing to see how so-called intelligent people fall for a Chinese honey trap.”
Rush Doshi, an assistant professor of security studies at Georgetown University in Washington, said: “If the reporting is right, this is the most significant story in US-China policy in years.
“If the US knew Jensen Huang had a romantic relationship with a Chinese spy and looked the other way, while that spy ran a company allegedly routing US computing power to China, it would warrant a congressional investigation.”
The United States barred companies from exporting advanced Nvidia chips to China in 2022, although some devices have reportedly been smuggled across the border. Other operators have legally established businesses in south-east Asia, buying large quantities of chips for data centres that provide services to Chinese companies.
According to unverified online biographies, Ms Huang worked for Chinese state television and later spent time in private equity before founding Megaspeed International in 2023
Mr Huang is pictured with President Donald Trump last month
Megaspeed, which is based in Singapore, appeared to operate as an intermediary, purchasing Nvidia chips and supplying computing capacity to Chinese companies outside China. However, the firm was also suspected of moving the technology into China illegally.
Mr Huang lobbied Mr Trump to ease restrictions on chip exports. When a US delegation travelled to China last May, he was initially excluded from the group because of concerns about his “influence on the President’s policy of only lightly regulating AI”.
Several Silicon Valley figures defended the technology executive on Monday night. Shaun Maguire, a partner at venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital, wrote on social media that Mr Huang was “irreplaceable for America’s AI leadership”, adding: “My guess is there was no bad intention.” SpaceX founder Elon Musk replied: “I agree.”
Hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman said: “Jensen Huang is human. And he is an incredible human… even incredible humans make mistakes.”
China rejected the allegation that Ms Huang was a spy and accused the United States of spreading “groundless smears and slanders”.
Nvidia said it “prioritises US national and economic security” but added that it had “no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised”.
The company said Mr Huang was co-operating with the investigation and would remain chief executive while the review was under way.