U.S. intelligence memo says China recruited a Megaspeed executive to gather information on Nvidia's CEO

A memo that circulated among senior U.S. officials earlier this year cited intelligence that Alice Huang, an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based Nvidia customer, was recruited by China's Ministry of State Security to collect information on Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, according to people briefed on the intelligence. The New York Times reported the memo's existence on Friday; the two are not related. According to the reports, Beijing wanted to learn more about U.S. AI chips and potentially influence the Santa Clara company to push for its most advanced chips to be sold in China.

An Nvidia spokesperson said Jensen Huang's interactions with Alice Huang were "not unusual," that he meets thousands of customer executives every year, and that the company does not share classified information with customers. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy called the reporting "unsubstantiated." On Thursday, the Republican leaders of three House committees asked Jensen Huang to appear later this month at a closed-door briefing about his interactions with her.

Megaspeed, spun off from a Chinese gaming company in 2023, built data centres across Southeast Asia and has drawn scrutiny from federal investigators examining whether advanced AI processors were diverted to China in violation of export rules. Nvidia has said an internal review of allegations about Megaspeed found no evidence of wrongdoing. A separate Times report examined New Matrix, a Chinese company authorized by the Commerce Department to buy advanced Nvidia chips, whose listed office turned out to be an empty shell.