People familiar say Justice Department takes Megaspeed probe after Nvidia outreach

H20 approval required 15% of China sales for the U.S. Treasury

The Commerce and Justice departments opened an investigation in late 2024 into whether Megaspeed was smuggling Nvidia chips into China, according to people familiar with the matter. After Nvidia executives learned of the U.S. government investigations, Nvidia general counsel Tim Teter reached out to Bureau of Industry and Security head Jeffrey Kessler, according to people familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal described Kessler as a little-known government official with influence over a broad portfolio of trade relationships, and The New York Times had earlier reported on the outreach.

Shortly after Teter’s outreach, Justice Department officials took control of the Megaspeed probe, giving their Commerce Department counterparts less of a role, according to people familiar with the matter. Some of those people said Justice Department officials worried that Kessler’s contact with Nvidia on a sensitive government matter that could affect Nvidia’s business had tainted the investigation. On Monday, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security responded to a New York Times report that it had walked away from the inquiry after an Nvidia executive’s outreach. “BIS conducts all enforcement strictly by the book,” a spokesman said.

Nvidia separately said the company had prohibited all sales and shipments to Megaspeed in June 2025 and that the ban remained in place. It received permission from the Commerce Department unit overseeing export controls for parts and replacement components sent to Megaspeed since then, the spokesman said. A Nvidia spokesman described the company’s review process: “When we have requests from customers for new shipments, service, or support, we have an obligation to resolve any potential ‘red flags’ before proceeding. That process can include asking [government agencies] whether they require any further information from us.”

The Wall Street Journal also reported that Huang had lobbied the Trump administration to loosen export controls on AI chips. Weeks after Huang returned to Taipei in May 2025, Huang and his top lobbyists traveled to Washington and met Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. The Nvidia contingent argued that the government should approve export licenses for the H20, a chip Nvidia had designed for the Chinese market, people familiar with the meeting said. A few days later, after Huang met with Trump, the administration approved the H20 sale, in return for 15% of China sales going to the U.S. Treasury. Nvidia executives learned of the U.S. government investigations into Megaspeed around the same time.

On Sunday, Nvidia’s board said it had launched an independent investigation into whether Jensen Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. The disclosure followed reports by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and other outlets that the U.S. government concluded Alice Huang was likely sending information to Chinese intelligence while maintaining a close relationship with Jensen Huang. The board said it had “no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised” and expressed “confidence in Jensen and his leadership team.” Huang apologized for infidelity to his family and Nvidia colleagues in a staff memo, writing, “I love our country and our company.”

On Monday, President Donald Trump said Huang had told him “he had absolutely no idea that the person in question was a spy.” Trump also said he did not remember receiving classified information included in a spring memo prepared under the supervision of Secretary of State Marco Rubio; according to people familiar with the matter, the memo warned of Huang’s relationship with a suspected Chinese spy.

A Nvidia spokesman said U.S. intelligence officials never gave Huang a warning that he might be the target of foreign intelligence efforts, often described as a defensive briefing. Asked about the memo, Trump said it was possible his intelligence personnel had shown it to him but that he did not recall seeing it. “Certainly, it didn’t make much of an impact on me,” he said.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Jensen Huang and Alice Huang met at an Nvidia event in California in March 2024, and they met again soon afterward at a cocktail bar in Taipei. The New York Times had earlier reported on the gathering. In June 2024, Jensen Huang was in Taipei for an annual computer-industry trade show. Late one night, technology executives gathered at a bar with Alice Huang, then a top leader at Singapore-based data-center company Megaspeed. Alice Huang said she could likely persuade the Nvidia chief to join them, according to the technology executive who was present. “Jensen’s a great friend of mine,” she said. She sent a text, and Jensen Huang arrived a few minutes later, ordered a whiskey, spoke briefly and left alone after saying he was tired. A social-media photo showed the two sitting side by side on a red banquette, with Jensen Huang in his trademark leather jacket and Alice Huang in a sleeveless top and pearl necklace.

Alice Huang had been a television reporter for Chinese state media and joined Megaspeed in 2023 after a stint in the financial sector. A Singapore registration listed her as a company director from March to November 2023. Megaspeed, a spinoff of Chinese company 7Road Holdings, advertised itself as a cloud provider of Nvidia hardware for the Asia-Pacific region. The company had previously stated that it was legitimate and compliant and had not engaged in illegal activities.

By later in 2024, authorities in several countries had grown concerned about Megaspeed’s ties to China. Authorities in Singapore and Taiwan focused on Alice Huang, putting physical surveillance teams on her, The Wall Street Journal reported. Officials involved in those investigations suspected she had been recruited by Chinese intelligence services after they learned of what they viewed as a close relationship between Alice Huang and Jensen Huang. Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs denied that Singaporean authorities had investigated Alice Huang for alleged ties to China.

Different factions within the Trump administration had spent two years disagreeing over AI policy and its role in the U.S.-China rivalry when Nvidia’s board disclosed the investigation. The Biden administration before it had treated access to AI chips as a national-security priority and imposed strict export controls. The Wall Street Journal said the disclosure raised questions about Nvidia’s influence and its lobbying for the ability to sell advanced AI chips to China despite policies designed to preserve an American edge in the technology race. After Donald Trump was elected again in November 2024, Jensen Huang met with Trump shortly after the inauguration to discuss AI policy with Elon Musk. A few months later, Huang and his wife, Lori Huang, flew to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club for a $1 million-a-head fundraiser. Huang quickly emerged as one of Trump’s top advisers on artificial intelligence, supplying talking points about maintaining America’s lead over China and praising Trump’s leadership on AI.

Some Trump advisers echoed Huang’s argument that encouraging China to buy American AI chips would slow the development of the country’s homegrown chip industry. Trump included Huang in a May 2025 trip to the Middle East, where Trump agreed to export Nvidia chips to Gulf nations. That month, Huang returned to Taipei, where he was again photographed with Alice Huang at a dinner where they could be seen kissing on the cheek and sharing touches on the arm. Efforts to reach Alice Huang were unsuccessful.

In October 2025, as Trump prepared to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, he told advisers he was considering allowing Nvidia to sell a new generation of AI chips in China as a trade-talks concession. Advisers including Rubio and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick persuaded him that doing so would harm national security. Before Trump’s trip to China to meet with Xi in May of this year, Rubio supervised the drafting of a classified memo warning that the Nvidia chief had a personal relationship with a suspected Chinese spy and circulated it to top administration officials, people familiar with the matter said. Huang was initially left off the trip but later boarded Air Force One in Alaska.

The matter came up during an intelligence briefing focused on Iran for top lawmakers on Monday. Several lawmakers from both parties said they hoped to pass aggressive chip-export restrictions as part of a proposed defense-spending package. “Clearly in this environment with all the cyber threats and all the world of superintelligence, these types of things take on an added significance,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) said.