Documents Confirm Smuggled Nvidia Chips Reached Alice Huang-Linked Firm

By Priya Raman

Documents reviewed by Bloomberg confirm what was previously only suspicion: a Chinese company founded by Alice Huang received smuggled Nvidia AI chips. The chips were installed in a data center in Shanghai. The United States bans exports of the most powerful Nvidia chips to China.

Alice Huang is the woman US authorities accuse of spying for Chinese intelligence. She also had an affair with former Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, according to the case file. Until now, her connection to the chip trafficking rested on allegation, not evidence.

What do the documents show?

The company Huang founded, Shanghai Longteng Intelligent Computing, obtained high-performance Nvidia chips that were installed in a Shanghai data center. That data center also has connections to Megaspeed, a Singapore-based firm where Huang served as an executive and which she also founded. Megaspeed stands accused of channeling Nvidia chips past US export controls (government restrictions on shipping sensitive technology to certain countries) into China.

The smuggled chips reached Shanghai Longteng inside Dell servers, according to the report, which cites an inside source. Some of those servers were originally sold to an Nvidia partner called Aperia Cloud Services, headquartered in Singapore. From there, the documents show, the hardware moved to China.

Alice Huang allegedly sits at the center of an entire network of Chinese firms through which the high-performance chip smuggling was conducted. One data center is one thing. A network of companies is a supply chain, and supply chains leave records. This is the first time records have surfaced.

Who else is involved?

The paper trail widens the circle of participants. Bloomberg identifies several names around the Shanghai operation:

• Huang Yu took over Alice Huang's shares in Shanghai Longteng in 2017. The outlet The Information identified Huang Yu as Alice Huang's sister.
• Kang Wei holds a leadership position at a company that financially supported the Shanghai data center. He was at times presented as Alice Huang's romantic partner.
• Alice Huang herself once worked at that supporting company.

Bloomberg could not reach Alice Huang, Kang Wei, or the companies involved for comment. The silence is consistent, but it is not a defense. US intelligence is investigating Alice Huang.

What remains unproven?

The evidence confirms the chips arrived. It does not, on the available reporting, establish who ordered the diversion at Aperia Cloud Services, or whether Nvidia or Dell knew anything about the rerouting. The insider account ties servers to a Singapore sale; it does not tie the sale to intent. US export controls failed at some point between Singapore and Shanghai, and the documents do not yet say precisely where.

Alice Huang divested her Shanghai Longteng stake in 2017, before the current US export bans took effect, so the founding link is historical rather than a current ownership claim in itself. What the documents establish is that a company she built received hardware the US government had forbidden China to obtain, through a second company she built, via servers sold through an official Nvidia partner in Singapore. That is a routing, not yet a conviction. The investigation continues.