Who is Alice Huang? The woman at the centre of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s scandal
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang admitted an affair as the board opened a probe into his ties with Alice Huang, a woman US officials suspect worked for China
PTC Web Desk: Jensen Huang, the head of Nvidia, has admitted to an extramarital affair. The company’s board has now started its own investigation into his links with a Chinese businesswoman. US officials suspect she was spying for Beijing.
Nvidia is worth about $4.5 trillion and makes the most advanced AI chips in the world.
The woman is Alice Huang, who is not related to him. The New York Times reported last month that she is a former executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company, and that US authorities investigated her and believe she was a Chinese intelligence asset.
Nvidia’s board said it was looking into reports that Jensen Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort. It also said it has no reason to believe company secrets or national security were compromised. Huang, 63, will stay on as CEO while the probe goes on. In his message to staff, he did not name Alice Huang. He said he had fallen short of his duties to employees, the board and shareholders.
How the story unfolded
It is still unclear when the two first met or how long the affair lasted. The earliest sighting came in June 2024, when she was photographed sitting next to Huang at a bar in Taipei. They were drinking with executives from Gigabyte and NetThunder. Around that time, her company, Megaspeed, started buying huge amounts of advanced AI chips from Nvidia.
In May the following year, she was seen standing behind Huang outside a Taipei restaurant while he spoke to reporters. By then, Washington had reportedly noticed Megaspeed’s dealings with Nvidia.
According to a classified memo, reported by The New York Times and the Financial Times, US authorities found that Alice Huang was passing information to Beijing. The memo says China’s Ministry of State Security recruited her to gather intelligence on Nvidia’s boss. It also says she was meant to influence Nvidia’s push to sell its top chips to China.
Megaspeed bought more than $4.8 billion worth of Nvidia chips over the past two years, according to the Times.
Who is Alice Huang?
She also goes by Huang Le and is a Chinese citizen. Her profile in a Chinese private-fund database says she is a former TV reporter who worked with Hunan TV and state broadcaster CCTV. It also lists stints at HSBC’s private banking division and at CITIC Securities.
Some of this is hard to confirm. The New York Post reported that a Hunan TV executive said he had never heard of her and it found no profile for her on CCTV’s website.
Chinese investment records also show she was an executive director and fund manager at Shanghai Hexi Investment Management, which reportedly had links to the gaming company 7Road. Megaspeed itself can be traced back to 7Road International, the Singapore arm of that company. It was founded in 2023, reportedly owned by Huang Le Limited, which she led, and sold to Swiftdata the same year. She stayed publicly linked to the business, which is now one of Nvidia’s biggest customers in Southeast Asia.
Why it matters for chip sales to China
The Biden administration put limits on sales of top Nvidia chips to China. After Donald Trump took office, Huang pushed back against very tight export rules. That is why the alleged plot to influence him matters so much in Washington.
Trump and Rubio react
Speaking at his Halloween party on October 31, Trump called the situation “very complex” and said he hoped Huang was OK. “I’ve always found Jensen Huang to be very aboveboard,” he said. He added that the administration would look into it “very closely.” Huang sits on the president’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and Trump has often praised him and taken him along on foreign trips.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio declined to comment as he left for a G7 meeting in Paris. He called it an “internal corporate matter” at Nvidia.
Republican lawmakers in the House have asked Huang to testify before Congress on November 18.
Nvidia is the world’s most valuable company. Its profits have beaten Wall Street’s expectations for three years running, and it reported quarterly profit of $59.69 billion in August.
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