Memo claims China recruited Megaspeed exec to spy on Nvidia CEO

China’s Ministry of State Security recruited Megaspeed executive Alice Huang in an effort to spy on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, according to a memo multiple outlets reported on this year. The New York Times broke the story; it had previously reported that Nvidia’s chief executive was a target of Chinese intelligence, and said the memo was reportedly built on U.S. intelligence itself. The Financial Times followed up, reporting that the same memo alleged a romantic relationship between the two executives — Alice Huang works at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based firm.

An Nvidia spokesperson told the Times that the CEO’s interactions with Alice Huang were “not unusual,” adding that the company shares no classified information with its customers.

Separately, the Times examined New Matrix, a company the U.S. Commerce Department has cleared to buy advanced Nvidia chips, and found nothing but an empty shell at its listed office address — raising the possibility that the firm fronts for a blacklisted private equity group.

Why it matters

The overlapping claims — a personal-conduct allegation against Nvidia’s own CEO and a front-company question around a licensed Chinese chip buyer — show how entangled national-security scrutiny of Nvidia’s China business has become with its leadership and its customers’ true identities.