Nvidia's China business is facing a new question; who had access to its leadership, chips and overseas customers? A New York Times investigation alleges that China's Ministry of State Security recruited Alice Huang to get close to CEO Jensen Huang and gather information about Nvidia's advanced GPUs. The reported links extend to Gigabyte and Alibaba through a Singapore based data centre business.

Nvidia shares fell nearly 5% in premarket trading on November 9 as the company opened an independent investigation.

Jensen Huang investigation raises fresh questions about China's AI chip access

The allegations put Nvidia's leadership and its China sales strategy under scrutiny at the same time. According to The New York Times, Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, worked directly for China's Ministry of State Security (MSS). She was reportedly tasked with learning about Nvidia's most advanced hardware and developing a relationship with Jensen Huang that could eventually help Beijing secure access to restricted GPUs.

The two Huangs are not related. Alice Huang was previously identified as managing director of Singapore-based Megaspeed until at least 2023. The reported intelligence operation dates back to at least 2024, when the pair were photographed together. US authorities had reportedly kept her under surveillance for at least a year.

The financial impact became visible in Nvidia's premarket trading. The stock closed at $186.64 on November 6, giving the company a market value of approximately $4.51 trillion. It fell to around $178.59 in premarket trading on November 9, down 4.31%.

Nvidia's board has announced an independent investigation led by independent directors and outside legal counsel. The company said it had no reason to believe that its trade secrets or US national security information had been compromised. Jensen Huang has agreed to cooperate with the investigation.
The political pressure is also increasing. Three Republican House committee chairmen have requested a closed-door briefing from Huang on November 18. Meanwhile, a separate New York Times report published on November 9 said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had overseen a classified memo last spring warning senior Trump administration officials about Huang's reported relationship with Alice Huang.

Gigabyte: Reported Alice Huang connections put Nvidia's hardware supply chain in focus

The investigation also raises questions about Nvidia's relationships with hardware suppliers. The New York Times reported that Alice Huang had connections with senior leaders at Gigabyte, the Taiwanese computer hardware manufacturer and a major assembler of Nvidia graphics cards.

Megaspeed expanded its AI infrastructure business rapidly from 2024, attracting attention because of its large funding and growing purchases of Nvidia-powered equipment.

The company also invested in a cybersecurity subsidiary of China Electronics Technology Group, a Chinese military electronics supplier. This connection does not establish that Gigabyte or its executives participated in any intelligence operation. However, it adds another layer to questions about the business relationships surrounding Nvidia's AI hardware.

Alibaba: Megaspeed's Nvidia data centres raise questions about US export controls

Alibaba's connection comes through Megaspeed's overseas data-centre business. According to the New York Times, the Singapore based company builds data centres in Southeast Asia using Nvidia GPUs and rents computing capacity to Alibaba.

The arrangement has implications for US export restrictions. Washington limits the direct sale of certain advanced AI chips to Chinese companies. However, renting computing capacity from servers located outside China offers another way to access AI computing resources without directly purchasing the restricted hardware.

Megaspeed's reported purchases of approximately $4.8 billion in Nvidia-powered equipment over two years make the business particularly important to the investigation. The scale of these purchases also raises questions about how overseas data centres are monitored and whether existing export rules can prevent restricted computing capacity from reaching Chinese customers.

Nvidia's China chip sales: Could the investigation change Trump's export policy?

The controversy also brings Jensen Huang's lobbying efforts back into focus. In 2025, he successfully pushed the Trump administration to permit certain Nvidia chip exports to China. A subsequent arrangement allowed limited sales of Nvidia's H200 processors under special conditions.

The H20 arrangement involved a reported 15% revenue-sharing expectation, while the H200 arrangement introduced a separate 25% US government fee.

Nvidia has argued that maintaining access to China is important for competing with domestic chipmakers such as Huawei. However, the latest allegations could make future export approvals more politically sensitive.

The investigation has not established that Alice Huang obtained Nvidia's confidential information or influenced any government decision. China has also rejected the espionage allegations, calling them unsubstantiated.