Executive at Centre of Nvidia Inquiry Works for One of the Chipmaker's Biggest Buyers

Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, is described by The New York Times and the Financial Times as a Chinese citizen. The two newspapers broke the story. She is reported to be a top figure at Megaspeed International, though neither paper has given her title. She has not been charged with any offence, and China has rejected the allegations against her.

The New York Times reported on October 29 that she had sought close ties with Jensen Huang to glean information about Nvidia's technology. The Times and the FT reported that she was under US surveillance and had been recruited by China's main intelligence agency. NBC News, citing a person familiar with the matter, said US intelligence agencies had judged her to be a Chinese spy.

The link to Megaspeed is what makes the case a business problem as well as a personal one. The Times reported that Megaspeed bought about $4.8 billion of Nvidia equipment, making it one of the company's biggest buyers, and Megaspeed's website describes the firm as a core partner of Nvidia's computing power cloud business in Asia-Pacific.

Megaspeed was under scrutiny before the latest reports. Singapore police are investigating suspected breaches of domestic laws, and the US Commerce Department is examining whether the company got around American export controls on advanced chips. Senator Tom Cotton earlier urged an investigation, describing Megaspeed as a spin-off of a Chinese government-owned cloud company. Megaspeed says it complies with all applicable regulations, including US export controls.

Singapore has disputed part of the reporting. The Wall Street Journal reported that Singapore's intelligence agency suspected Alice Huang of being an asset of China's Ministry of State Security. The city-state's home affairs ministry said no such investigation had been conducted in respect of her, while police said their inquiry into Megaspeed itself continues. The Chinese Embassy in Washington has denied the spying allegations.

Nvidia had earlier said the contacts between the two were not unusual, that it does not share classified information with customers, and that Jensen Huang meets thousands of customer executives every year. Huang has since told staff in a memo that he was unfaithful to his wife and offered no excuse, without naming the woman involved.

Nvidia's board has opened an independent inquiry led by independent directors with outside counsel. It says it has no reason to believe that national security or Nvidia's secrets were compromised. President Donald Trump has called Huang an honourable man. In Congress, Senator Elizabeth Warren said "he and the board owe Congress answers".

The next fixed date is November 18. According to Al Jazeera, House Republicans have asked Huang to testify that day, which would put the Megaspeed relationship and Nvidia's export-control compliance in front of lawmakers.