There is little public information available about Alice Huang, the woman reportedly at the centre of the Jensen Huang honeypot allegations, a fact that has only added fuel to claims she is a Chinese intelligence asset.
She was the chief executive of a Singapore-based datacentre company reportedly suspected of evading US export controls and routing Nvidia chips to China.
US officials then came to believe she was also a spy for Beijing who was having an affair with Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, the chip company critical to US ambitions of staying ahead of China in the AI race.
People briefed on the US intelligence told the New York Times they believed Alice Huang was recruited as part of efforts to learn more about American AI chips, and to try to persuade Nvidia to push for its advanced chips to be made available to China.
China has denied the allegations, calling them “nothing but smears”.
It is unclear exactly when the two Huangs, who are not related, first met.
Alice Huang speaks good English and is well connected within the upper echelons of the global AI chip industry, the New York Times wrote, citing people who had met her.
Megaspeed, the datacentre company for which she was previously listed as chief executive, still describes itself as “a premier business partner of Nvidia” on LinkedIn.
It was in this capacity that the businesswoman was pictured in Jensen Huang’s company several times in 2024 and 2025.
One photo from an industry party in 2024, posted by another attending company on LinkedIn, shows the two sitting next to each other on a couch in Taipei.
The year after, they were filmed together again in Taipei at a dinner hosted by Jensen Huang during Computex, the island’s top tech expo.
Press outside livestreamed footage of the two, seemingly comfortable in each other’s company, with Jensen Huang at one point putting his arm around Alice Huang as she kissed him on the cheek.
The two later left the restaurant in the same car, the footage showed.
A New York-based short-selling firm first raised concerns publicly about their “uncomfortably close relationship” six months ago.
Earlier this year, US officials wrote a memo saying the two Huangs had been romantically involved, the Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing sources who had seen it.
On Sunday the Nvidia chief executive sent a company-wide email apologising for an affair.
He did not name Alice Huang but said he would cooperate with an investigation “regarding the national security concerns raised in news reports”.
Alice Huang’s current whereabouts are unknown, and she has not given a public statement about the allegations.
It is unclear what her current relationship is with Megaspeed. Culper Research, the short-selling firm, quoted an employee in May as saying that contrary to public reporting, Alice Huang was “actually still our boss”.
The details of her career before that are difficult to ascertain.
Several media outlets have cited a profile matching her name and picture on a Chinese fund database, which listed previous jobs at banks including HSBC and CITIC, as well as roles at Chinese media outlets CCTV and Hunan TV.
However, reporters have been unable to confirm any of the details listed.
Megaspeed is among a number of south-east Asian firms that buy chips to build facilities and then rent their computing power to companies in China.
According to Singapore’s Straits Times, it was previously known as 7Road International – a Chinese gaming company with ties to state-backed investors.
At the time of the rebrand, it was owned by Huang Le Limited and led by Alice Huang, the newspaper said, before the ownership was transferred to another company in 2023.
Since late 2024, the US government has reportedly been investigating Megaspeed for helping companies in China sidestep American export restrictions.
The New York Times said Singapore questioned Alice Huang during its own investigation into the company, but released her.
Nvidia has previously said it has looked into Megaspeed but found no cause for concern.
The Guardian has contacted Megaspeed for comment.
