Megaspeed exec Alice Huang investigated over alleged China spying

By Grace Kim

U.S., Singapore and Taiwanese authorities are reportedly investigating Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based data center firm Megaspeed, over alleged spying for China; U.S. officials concluded that she was a Chinese intelligence asset with a close relationship to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

The New York Times reported that assessment. Huang, who is not related to Jensen Huang, allegedly worked on behalf of the Chinese state in an operation targeting him. Jensen Huang called the claims “groundless speculation,” while the Chinese Embassy in Washington rejected the allegations.

What do the allegations against Megaspeed cover?

Megaspeed has been publicly accused of helping ship embargoed Nvidia hardware into China, including in 2025 reporting by The New York Times and Bloomberg. Separate allegations say the company deployed GPUs (graphics processing units) in Malaysia and Indonesia that appeared to serve Chinese customers remotely.

At the time, Megaspeed said it operated fully in compliance with all applicable laws, including U.S. export controls—restrictions on specified technology sales abroad. Nvidia said its compliance teams found no untoward activity.

Megaspeed also said it had faced several government investigations and reviews. The company said those reviews found no evidence of violations involving illicit chip transfers or other illegal activity, and it described Megaspeed as compliant and legitimate.

How did surveillance connect Huang with Jensen?

During U.S. surveillance of Huang, officials discovered that she had contacted an American citizen. U.S. intelligence agencies cannot surveil American citizens without a court order, but they can seek an “unmasking,” a process that identifies a citizen communicating with a person under surveillance.

Here, the unmasking reportedly revealed communications with Jensen Huang. When President Donald Trump was first briefed on the intelligence a year ago, U.S. officials did not believe the Nvidia executive knew about Huang's alleged information gathering for China. The United States did not inform Nvidia or Jensen Huang about its suspicions.

Nvidia said it remained confident that the U.S. government would notify the company if it believed any person posed a threat to American industry. The Singapore Police Force said its investigations into Megaspeed were ongoing and declined further comment.

After The New York Times reported the case, reporters asked Trump whether he still trusted Jensen Huang. “I would like to say yes. I mean, unless we find out something to the contrary,” Trump said.

Trump added that he had always found Jensen Huang to be aboveboard, calling the issue complex and saying he hoped everything was okay with Jensen.

What changes for Nvidia's China access?

Nvidia has long pushed for greater access to China, which generated one-fifth of its sales before the United States limited chip exports. Lobbying by Nvidia and Jensen Huang, including private dinners with Trump and a $20 million donation to the White House Ballroom, helped reverse some Biden-era restrictions.

Current rules permit limited quantities of Nvidia H200 GPUs to be exported to China, with the U.S. government taking a 25% cut. China has enforced its own import restrictions on the hardware to foster domestic competition.

The espionage case sits alongside a separate enforcement action from March, when Supermicro cofounder Wally Liaw was arrested on charges of violating U.S. export-control laws. Liaw was alleged to have worked to smuggle $2.5 billion worth of Nvidia GPU servers into China; Supermicro denied wrongdoing, and Liaw pleaded not guilty.

For Nvidia, the immediate change is heightened compliance scrutiny around a China-sales strategy already constrained by export rules, not an established violation by Nvidia or Jensen Huang. No quantified revenue effect has been reported. The open question is whether the authorities' findings lead to tighter restrictions on Megaspeed's overseas GPU deployments or Nvidia's access to Chinese customers.