US secretary of state Marco Rubio had warned top Trump administration officials about Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s close relationship with a suspected Chinese spy, according to a report that surfaced after the tech star admitted to having an affair with the woman.
Alice Huang’s professional background includes reported stints in television, banking and investment management, including China Central Television (CCTV), China’s state broadcaster, and the Shanghai Banking Corporation, according to a profile attributed to her in a Chinese private-fund database, cited by the NYT and the New York Post. Earlier reporting noted: Rubio warned Trump administration about Nvidia CEO’s alleged ties to Chinese spy Alice Huang: Report The revelations have now prompted Nvidia’s board of directors to launch an independent investigation Earlier reporting noted: US secretary of state Marco Rubio had warned senior Trump administration officials about Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s alleged ties to a Chinese businesswoman suspected of working for Beijing’s intelligence agency, months before the company launched an independent investigation into the matter. Earlier reporting noted: Rubio oversaw the drafting of a highly classified memo circulated among senior administration officials during the spring, warning that Huang had developed a close relationship with Alice Huang, whom American intelligence agencies believed had been recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security, The New York Times reported.
Rubio’s involvement highlighted how concerns over Jensen Huang’s relationship with the woman were known to senior officials as the Nvidia CEO remained an influential voice with Trump over policy on artificial intelligence. The state secretary’s memo was circulated to administration officials with high-level security clearances ahead of Trump’s visit to China in May. Jensen Huang was initially left off the list of major business and tech executives invited to join Trump to China, despite his status as an AI pioneer. As per the report, Alice Huang was working as a senior executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed International that was buying Nvidia’s advanced AI chips and being investigated for illegally smuggling them into China. Despite the citizen being Jensen Huang, Trump chose not to take any action at the point as he viewed Nvidia’s chips as integral to America’s competition with China in AI. “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did.
Jensen and Alice were photographed together with other industry executives at a bar in Taipei in 2024.
US intelligence told the Trump administration that it believed Alice Huang was hired by the agency to collect information from Huang on behalf of Beijing’s ministry of state security. She spoke English well and had relationships with executives at the highest levels of the AI industry, including the Nvidia CEO and leaders of Gigabyte, one of the top assemblers of Nvidia supercomputers, according to people who know her. Trump was briefed roughly a year ago that the US intelligence community had electronic surveillance of Alice Huang, believed to be an operative working for China’s intelligence services, being in a close relationship with a US citizen, according to a previous NYT report. I am deeply sorry,” he said.
