If suspected spies are supposed to conduct their relationships out of the public gaze, it was not a tactic to which Alice Huang paid much heed in her pursuit of tech titan Jensen Huang.
A crumb trail of social media photographs and videos show the suspected Chinese agent and her apparent billionaire target, the Nvidia CEO, dining together – on at least one occasion apparently alone – and mixing at industry events for at least two years before questions were raised about their ties.
With her fluent English and confidently elegant demeanour, it seems she had little problem moving among America’s AI elite amid the epochal struggle between Washington and Beijing for technological advantage.
‘I bet I can get Jensen here’
One anecdote provided by an attendee at a tech get-together in Taiwan illustrates how Alice Huang, the Chinese chief executive of a Singapore-based data centre company called Megaspeed International, hid in plain sight as she flaunted her links with the founder of Nvidia – the $5trn colossus which bestrides the AI chip sector. (The two share a surname but are not related.)
Peter Schmitt, chief executive of a data software company, told The New York Times last year that during a night out with tech executives, “She said, ‘I bet you guys I can get Jensen here,’ and then Jensen immediately showed up.”
Pictures from the occasion show she sat next to the Nvidia chief as he sank a shot of whisky with the group, clad in one of his trademark black leather jackets.
Alice Huang and Jensen Huang on a night out in Taipei in 2024 (Photo: Obtained by Reuters)
Nvidia said at the time that Mr Huang had been planning to attend the bar anyway, one of a succession of explanations in recent months that the relationship between its founder and the glamorous Chinese tech executive was strictly business.
On a separate occasion, also in Taipei, she was seen placing her hand briefly on the small of the 63-year-old back and separately kissing him on the cheek. She then hovered in the background as the tech CEO interacted with a crowd of admirers gathered outside.
The pair were later seen leaving in the same car.
Alice Huang was chief executive of a Singapore-based data centre company called Megaspeed International (Photo: CTI/AFP/Getty)
Yet, Nvidia remained insistent that nothing was awry.
As recently as late last month, the company’s spokesperson said: “Jensen’s interactions with Ms Huang are not unusual or unexpected. Meetings with customers are part of a CEO’s job. Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year.”
Nvidia’s plunging share price on Monday told the uncomfortable truth for the company that its CEO’s interactions – consisting of an extramarital affair of uncertain duration – were indeed unusual and unexpected.
Surveillance
The pair appear to have known each other since at least 2024 – a year after Megaspeed was formed in 2023.
It has now emerged that for at least a year between 2024 and early 2026, unnamed US intelligence agencies were conducting an electronic surveillance operation on Alice Huang and gathering details about her relationship with the boss of Nvidia, long regarded as a crown jewel of America’s AI industry.
The eavesdropping took place amid suspicions that Megaspeed, which based itself in Singapore after splitting off from Chinese gaming company 7Road, was using its role as a data centre provider to buy and smuggle Nvidia chips into China in breach of American export controls.
Between June 2024 and February 2026, Megaspeed placed orders worth $4.8bn with Nvidia, making it one of the chip giant’s biggest Asian customers. The Singapore-based company, which describes itself as a “premier business partner of Nvidia”, has strongly denied any wrongdoing and says it complied with all relevant export regulations.
Nonetheless, US intelligence services have made it known that they believe Megaspeed’s CEO was an asset of the China’s Ministry of State Security, passing as yet undisclosed information back to Beijing.
Just what Beijing’s spy chiefs may have wanted from the claimed operation against Mr Huang is unknown, though any attempts to persuade him to use his influence with Donald Trump to allow chip exports would have worked in China’s favour.
A mysterious past
While Alice Huang may have been somewhat high profile in her associations with the Nvidia chief, her own story is less evident.
In an age where it is difficult to leave little or no online biographical trace, especially for a tech executive, even her age remained uncertain.
What’s clear is that she was named as Megaspeed’s managing director on official company records for eight months after its establishment in March 2023, and later referred to as the company’s chief executive.
A profile on LinkedIn apparently belonging to her revealed nothing beyond a photograph. Instead, what is known is based on a number of scant sources, including a profile on a Chinese investment fund where it is claimed Alice Huang – also known as Huang Le – once worked.
The posting, reported by The New York Times and AFP, suggests she worked for about four years in the media as a television reporter for a local station in the mountainous central Chinese province of Hunan before then moving to China’s state-owned national broadcaster, CCTV. Footage of her television work was nonetheless difficult to obtain, with a senior executive at the Hunan TV station reportedly claiming this week that he had never heard of her.
Thereafter she appears to have pivoted into the world of finance, reportedly working for a number of Chinese and international banks, including HSBC, where she is claimed to have specialised in private wealth; and Shanghai-based Hexi Capital, which specialises in tech investments including AI and data centres.
Precipitous rise to AI’s top table
It is really only after her arrival at Megaspeed International – based in a landmark building in Singapore’s central business district – that Alice Huang began to emerge into the daylight.
Company records obtained by The i Paper show that it took on the registration of another entity – 7Road International PTE – which was founded in 2015. The new company, with a nominal value of 10 million Singapore dollars (£5.6m) specialises in “data analytics, processing and [internet] hosting services”.
It is unknown exactly when she first met the Nvidia founder, and at which point in that relationship she is suspected of having been recruited by Beijing’s spies. According to reports, the recruitment only took place after she had formed her relationship with Mr Huang.
It is at least clear that the precipitous rise into AI’s aristocracy, by the supposed TV journalist turned financial expert, only came about as her company bought itself a seat at the table with big-ticket chip purchases, and she set about charming its most important players.
Then, almost as quickly as she appeared, it seems that Alice Huang has disappeared. Once suspicions about Megaspeed’s activities became known last year, she appears to have left any official role with the company. Megaspeed was approached for comment.
As doubtless befits a suspected international intelligence operative – her current whereabouts are unknown.