US, Singapore and Taiwan suspected Nvidia-linked executive of aiding Beijing

The latest:

Investigators in the United States, Singapore and Taiwan came to suspect that Alice Huang, a senior executive at data-center firm Megaspeed International, was passing information to the Chinese government, according to people familiar with the matter. US officials reached that conclusion last year while she worked with Nvidia on building data centers across Asia. She is not related to Nvidia chief Jensen Huang.

Details:

• The suspicion: Officials involved in the inquiries believed Alice Huang, who also goes by Huang Le, was recruited by Chinese intelligence services after they learned of what they regarded as a close relationship between her and the Nvidia chief executive, people familiar with the matter said.
• The surveillance: Authorities in Singapore, where Megaspeed is based, and in Taiwan separately looked into her ties to China, at one point assigning physical surveillance teams to follow her, some of those people said. In late 2024, as the monitoring began, she travelled into China and dropped from view. It could not be established where she is now, or whether she still holds a senior Megaspeed position.
• Nvidia’s response: An Nvidia spokesman said the company is confident Washington would notify it if any individual were considered a threat to American industry, adding that Jensen Huang’s interactions with Alice Huang “are not unusual or unexpected” given their business ties. The two were photographed at meetings that also included other Nvidia cloud partners in Asia, he said.
• Beijing’s denial: The Chinese Embassy in Washington rejected the allegations, saying China opposes the peddling of what it called a Chinese spy narrative and that the country’s technological development rests on independent innovation.
• Singapore’s position: A Singapore Police Force representative said investigations into Megaspeed were ongoing and declined to give specifics, adding that Singapore does not enforce other countries’ unilateral export controls but acts firmly against fraudulent practices. After publication, Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs said no such investigations were conducted in respect of Alice Huang. Taiwan’s representative office in Washington declined to comment.
• The export probe: Commerce Department officials began examining in late 2024 whether Megaspeed was diverting Nvidia chips to China in breach of US export controls. That inquiry largely stalled, and the Justice Department is now leading the case, people familiar with the matter said.
• The company’s defence: Megaspeed said late last year it had undergone several government reviews over chip-diversion allegations, and that those reviews confirmed no evidence of illicit chip transfers or illegal activity, which it said showed it was a compliant and legitimate company. The firm was set up in 2023 after a Chinese company split off its overseas operation. It did not respond to requests for comment.
• The business model: Megaspeed and similar firms buy Nvidia chips, install them in data centers in countries such as Malaysia, then sell computing capacity to tech giants and other customers. Security analysts say such arrangements let Chinese companies reach restricted computing power remotely.
• The wider pattern: Greg Allen, chief executive of a research firm focused on chips and geopolitics, said federal agencies’ actual behaviour shows little evidence of willingness to catch smugglers, deter smuggling or hold companies accountable. In March, Super Micro co-founder Wally Liaw was arrested over the alleged smuggling of $2.5 billion in Nvidia-powered servers to China; he pleaded not guilty.

Background:

China accounted for roughly one-fifth of Nvidia’s revenue in 2023. That revenue vanished after the Commerce Department banned sales of the Hopper generation last April, including a downgraded chip built for the Chinese market. Jensen Huang has said Nvidia’s China share fell from 95% to zero.

Between the lines:

The case lands on a company whose chief executive has lobbied Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to loosen the very controls Megaspeed is suspected of circumventing, and whose agency rolled back many Biden-era export rules. Allen’s criticism of enforcement and the stalled Commerce inquiry point at the same gap: the diversion route runs through third-country data centers rather than direct shipments.

What’s next

Watch the Justice Department probe into Megaspeed, whether Singapore’s police investigation yields charges, and whether Liaw’s prosecution produces evidence of broader diversion networks involving Nvidia hardware.