Nvidia denies report of Chinese intelligence asset close to CEO Jensen Huang
Nvidia says a New York Times report about a person close to CEO Jensen Huang is wrong, and that export-control diversion allegations were investigated and debunked.
At a glance
- Nvidia pushed back on a New York Times report that U.S. intelligence surveilled Alice Huang, who is tied to cloud firm Megaspeed.
- Nvidia said Megaspeed is a regional cloud customer and that diversion allegations against it were investigated and debunked last year.
- The U.S. cleared Nvidia's H200 chip for China, but Chinese regulators blocked imports; Nvidia wrote off about $4.5 billion in China-tuned chips.
Nvidia on Thursday pushed back on a New York Times report that U.S. intelligence agencies surveilled a person close to chief executive Jensen Huang because they suspected she could be a Chinese intelligence asset.
According to the Times, which cited people briefed on intelligence surveillance, Alice Huang, who is linked to the Singapore-based cloud company Megaspeed, developed a close relationship with Jensen Huang. Intelligence agencies worried she was a spy helping the Chinese government obtain information from Nvidia and its CEO, and were concerned that Jensen Huang had access to President Donald Trump.
Nvidia's response
An Nvidia spokesperson told CNBC that Megaspeed is one of the company's regional cloud customers and that Jensen Huang's dealings with its officials are not unusual, because he speaks with thousands of customers every year. Customers do not get access to Nvidia trade secrets or relevant national security information, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that Megaspeed had already been investigated over export controls. "The diversion allegations against this regional cloud were thoroughly investigated and debunked last year," the spokesperson said.
Nvidia implied that the U.S. government had not briefed it about Alice Huang. "We're confident that if the U.S. government believes that any person is a threat to American industry, it would let us know," the spokesperson said.
Export controls and China
The Times report also alleged that Megaspeed had previously been suspected of helping companies evade U.S. export controls on Nvidia's AI chips, which are not allowed to be shipped to China.
Nvidia has had to walk a tightrope in Washington as its AI chips have become both a powerful tool for AI developers and a bargaining chip in economic competition with China. Politicians and analysts say the chips could be used to build Chinese military AI models, or commercial AI models that could compete with and eventually surpass American technology.
As AI has grown more important to the government, Huang has befriended Trump and given speeches supporting U.S. AI infrastructure. He has appeared with Trump at state dinners, AI summits and international trips while pushing for certain Nvidia chips to be cleared for shipment to China.
Earlier this year the U.S. government cleared Nvidia's H200 chip to be shipped to China, but Chinese regulators prevented their imports. The H200 is a Hopper generation chip, not the faster Blackwell generation currently used by American AI developers.
The Nvidia spokesperson said the Chinese government is not looking for Nvidia products from regional clouds like Megaspeed. "Instead, the PRC government blocked U.S. AI chips, protecting its own industry and resulting in the largest write-offs in U.S. tech history," the spokesperson said. Last year, Nvidia wrote off about $4.5 billion in Chinese-tuned AI chips.
Source: CNBC.
Questions and answers
- What did the New York Times report say about Jensen Huang?
- It said U.S. intelligence agencies surveilled Alice Huang, who is linked to Singapore-based cloud company Megaspeed, over concerns she could be a Chinese intelligence asset with a close relationship to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
- How has Nvidia responded to the report?
- An Nvidia spokesperson said Megaspeed is a regional cloud customer, that Jensen Huang speaks with thousands of customers a year, and that diversion allegations against Megaspeed were investigated and debunked last year.
- What has Megaspeed been accused of?
- The Times report alleged Megaspeed had previously been suspected of helping companies evade U.S. export controls on Nvidia AI chips that cannot be shipped to China. Nvidia says those allegations were investigated and debunked.
