U.S. officials suspect Megaspeed executive Alice Huang of spying for China

Justice Department leads probe into Megaspeed chip diversions

Officials in the U.S., Singapore and Taiwan have grown concerned that a data-center industry executive with close ties to Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang is a Chinese intelligence source, potentially giving Beijing access to information about the world’s most valuable artificial-intelligence chips, people familiar with the matter said. U.S. officials concluded last year that Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen then serving as a top executive at Megaspeed International, was sharing information with the Chinese government while working with Nvidia to build data centers in Asia.

Huang, who also goes by Huang Le, is not related to the Nvidia chief executive. Authorities in Singapore, where Megaspeed is based, and in Taiwan separately investigated her ties to China, at one point putting physical surveillance teams on her, some of the people said. Officials involved in those investigations suspected she was recruited by Chinese intelligence services after they learned of what they saw as a close relationship between her and Jensen Huang.

In late 2024, as authorities started to surveil her, Huang disappeared into China for a period, the people said. It couldn’t be determined where she is now or whether she still holds a top role at Megaspeed. Attempts to reach her for comment were unsuccessful, and Megaspeed didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington rejected the allegations, saying China opposes what it called the peddling of a “Chinese spy narrative” and that its technological development is grounded in “independent innovation.”

“We’re confident that if the U.S. government believes that any person is a threat to American industry, it would let us know,” an Nvidia spokesman said, adding that Jensen Huang’s interactions with Alice Huang “are not unusual or unexpected” given their business ties. Taiwan’s representative office in Washington said it doesn’t comment on specific intelligence or security matters.

A representative of the Singapore Police Force said investigations into Megaspeed were ongoing and declined to give specifics. “While we do not enforce unilateral export controls imposed by other countries, we act firmly against companies and individuals who violate our laws and are engaged in fraudulent and dishonest practices,” the representative said.

The Justice Department is now leading the probe into Megaspeed. In late 2024, Commerce Department officials began investigating whether Megaspeed was diverting Nvidia’s chips to China, circumventing U.S. export controls meant to protect critical technologies. That investigation largely stalled, according to people familiar with the matter.

Many U.S. security experts are worried that companies are skirting rules preventing advanced chips from going to China, often by building data centers in nearby countries and then letting Chinese companies access that computing capacity remotely. The analysts have criticized what they describe as the Trump administration’s unwillingness to close what they call loopholes. “When you look at the actual behavior of federal agencies, there’s little to no evidence that they are willing to take the meaningful actions that are required to catch smugglers, deter smuggling and hold companies accountable,” said Greg Allen, chief executive of a research firm focused on chips and geopolitics.

Late last year, Megaspeed said it had undergone several government reviews into allegations of chip diversions. “These thorough investigations have confirmed that there has been no evidence of any violations concerning the illicit transfer of chips or any illegal activities, and this demonstrates that we are a compliant and legitimate company,” Megaspeed said in a statement at the time. The investigation and concerns about Megaspeed were previously reported by the New York Times, and officials in the Biden administration opened the initial investigation amid a broader effort to restrict the flow of U.S. chips to much of the world.

Nvidia’s technology is considered one of the most prized American technology assets, and Jensen Huang has formed a close relationship with President Trump. With Huang’s encouragement, Trump has enacted industry-friendly chip and AI policies and approved some sales of older Nvidia chips to China while negotiating with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Nvidia has been largely locked out of China since last April, when the Commerce Department banned sales of its powerful Hopper generation of processors, including a chip with degraded capabilities that was specially designed for the Chinese market. China sales accounted for about one-fifth of Nvidia’s revenue in 2023, but since the U.S. government tightened restrictions, that revenue has vanished. Huang has said he believes roughly half of the world’s best AI developers are based in China and should be using Nvidia’s hardware. “We went from 95% market share to 0% [in China], and so I can’t imagine any policymaker thinking that that’s a good idea, that whatever policy we implemented caused America to lose one of the largest markets in the world,” Huang said last year at an event hosted by securities firm Citadel.

Megaspeed and companies like it buy Nvidia chips with the goal of installing them in data centers in countries such as Malaysia, then selling that computing capacity to tech giants and other customers. The Singapore-based company was set up in 2023 after a Chinese firm split off its overseas operation. Alice Huang was one of its top executives and was photographed in public with Jensen Huang in Taipei in 2024 and 2025.

After Trump began his second term, Jensen Huang repeatedly asked the president and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to give Nvidia expanded access to the Chinese market and loosen strict restrictions limiting the flow of U.S. chips. Lutnick’s agency rolled back many of the Biden administration’s regulations on chip exports. The industry-friendly approach has frustrated some in the administration who think the White House is being too deferential to China while trade talks continue, and Beijing’s own push for technological self-reliance has also cut into Nvidia’s sales of lower-end chips there.

In March, Nvidia was drawn into another China-related export-control case when Wally Liaw, the co-founder of server maker Super Micro, was arrested on charges of violating U.S. export-control laws by allegedly helping smuggle $2.5 billion worth of servers containing advanced Nvidia microchips into China. Super Micro said at the time that it was cooperating with federal investigators, and Nvidia said compliance with export restrictions is a top priority. Both companies denied wrongdoing at the time. Liaw’s attorneys couldn’t be reached for comment, and Liaw pleaded not guilty to the charges.