Nvidia board probes claim its CEO was target of Chinese spy operation
Nvidia's board is investigating reports that chief executive Jensen Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort, putting the world's second most-valuable company at the centre of a widening espionage fight over artificial intelligence.
The chipmaker said it has no reason to believe that either US national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised. Huang said he would cooperate fully, is committed to protecting Nvidia and supports America's national security. President Donald Trump said the FBI is looking into Huang's extramarital relationship with a suspected Chinese spy, while backing the executive: "I just know Jensen very well. I just think he's a very honourable man."
China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun denied suggestions that China spied on Huang through Alice Huang, founder of Megaspeed International. Her firm was the largest buyer of Nvidia chips in Southeast Asia, a major route for smuggling the company's advanced hardware into China, and has previously denied helping China evade export controls.
Former officials and analysts say the case fits a pattern. An OpenAI engineer from Saudi Arabia faces charges of planting a hidden recording device in an executive conference room, and in January a federal jury convicted a former Google engineer of stealing AI trade secrets for China. "The AI companies are increasingly becoming targets of foreign intelligence services," said Chris McGuire of the Council on Foreign Relations. William Evanina, former director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said learning Huang's private conversations and corporate plans would be valuable to China, as would deeper penetration of Nvidia's supply chain.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence's counterintelligence directorate warned business leaders in late October to vet foreign partners and build transparency into agreements. In April, Republican Senator Jim Banks wrote to AI chiefs including OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei about the Chinese espionage threat, though not to Huang.
