China slams 'groundless' report of spying on Nvidia's Jensen Huang

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun on Friday rejected as "groundless speculation" a New York Times report claiming that US intelligence officials concluded Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang was targeted by a Chinese spy operation seeking to penetrate the semiconductor giant's inner circle. "The report in question is based on groundless speculation and is nothing more than an attempt to smear China," Guo said at a regular briefing, as Beijing and Washington remain locked in an escalating race for dominance over artificial intelligence and advanced semiconductor technology.

Intelligence claims

The New York Times article, published Thursday, cited unnamed US intelligence sources saying that Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, a Chinese executive linked to Singapore-based data centre firm Megaspeed, acted as an intelligence asset funneling information to Beijing. The report said Megaspeed was under scrutiny for possibly steering advanced Nvidia AI chips to China in violation of US export restrictions, and that Alice Huang had developed a close relationship with Jensen Huang despite having no family relation to the Taiwanese-born Nvidia chief. US officials reportedly briefed President Donald Trump on the findings roughly a year ago, but the president chose not to act on the information, which could have provided Beijing with insights into White House thinking ahead of talks between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping next month.

Corporate denial

Nvidia spokesperson John Rizzo told the newspaper that Megaspeed was like any other regional customer and that Jensen's interactions with Ms. Huang were entirely routine business conduct. "Jensen's interactions with Ms. Huang are not unusual or unexpected. Meetings with customers are part of a C.E.O.'s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year," Rizzo said. The company had previously investigated allegations that the Singaporean firm was smuggling chips to China and thoroughly debunked those claims last year, he added.

A separate Nvidia spokesperson told AFP on Friday that regional cloud customers receive only ordinary business information without access to sensitive trade secrets or data relevant to national security. China and the United States remain locked in a race for tech dominance, with Washington restricting exports of the most advanced chips designed by Nvidia — now the world's most valuable company — and used to train artificial intelligence models. AFP attempted to contact Megaspeed for comment, but the phone number listed on the company's website connected to a residential line where an individual said they were unfamiliar with the firm.