The mysterious woman at the center of Nvidia's Chinese spy scandal

Alice Huang, a former executive of a Singapore-based AI computing company, is at the center of a suspected Chinese espionage scandal after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang acknowledged an extramarital affair.

Why it matters: The investigation raises questions about whether Chinese intelligence sought access to Nvidia's technology and CEO through Alice Huang as the U.S. and China compete in the AI race.

Driving the news: Over the weekend, Jensen Huang admitted in a letter to Nvidia employees that he had a romantic relationship with a suspected Chinese spy.

• Though he did not name Alice Huang, the letter came after The New York Times first reported that U.S. authorities believed she was a Chinese spy in October.
• Photos captured Alice and Jensen Huang together in 2024 and 2025.
• Though they have the same surname, Alice and Jensen Huang are not related or married. Jensen Huang has been married to Lori Huang for 40 years.

Context: Little is known about Alice Huang. She has lead a Singapore-based company called Megaspeed International, a cloud computing and data center operator that became a multibillion-dollar Nvidia customer.

• The New York Times reported Monday that the Commerce Department was leading the investigation into Megaspeed before it was sent to the Justice Department after Nvidia reached out about the case.

Read more about Alice Huang and Megaspeed below.

Who is Alice Huang?

Zoom in: Huang, also known as Huang Le, is a Chinese citizen with a reported background in journalism and finance.

• An AFP investigation found an online profile that said she previously worked at the financial services company HSBC and the broadcasters CCTV and Hunan TV.
• However, AFP said it couldn't independently verify the information.

Zoom out: The New York Times reports that China's Ministry of State Security recruited Alice Huang to seek information about Jensen Huang and influence his feelings about selling AI chips to Chinese firms.

• But it's still unclear what information she provided to Beijing and whether she obtained any from Jensen Huang.
• Nvidia's board says it has no reason to believe Alice Huang obtained trade secrets. China has also denied the allegations.

What to know about Alice Huang's company

Alice Huang is a former executive of Megaspeed International, which rents out computing power from advanced Nvidia processors, giving customers power to run AI systems without owning chips.

• Before it was Megaspeed, the company was known as 7Road International, a subsidiary of prominent Chinese video game developer, 7Road Holdings. Before the AI boom, Nvidia products were primarily used in the video game industry.
• In the 2010s, Alice worked at Shanghai Hexi Investment Management, which had investment connections to the 7Road gaming company. She also sold a cloud business to 7Road in 2019, according to documents compiled by Tesari AI, an AI startup focused on national security matters.
• 7Road International, the Singapore subsidiary of 7Road Holdings, became Megaspeed in March 2023, and Alice Huang became managing director, per Tesari AI's documents. Her company Huang Le Limited became the sole owner of Megaspeed.

In November 2023, Megaspeed was bought by a company called Swiftdata. Alice Huang and another director, Cang Yang, soon resigned from the company.

• The company faced an investigation by Singapore police in October 2025 over violations of local laws, but specific offenses were not shared publicly.

Employees told The Wall Street Journal that Alice Huang continued leading the business after resigning.

• Alice Huang is "actually still our boss," an employee told Culper Research, which published an investigation into Nvidia's China business in May 2026.

How Alice Huang's Megaspeed ties to Nvidia

By the numbers: Megaspeed became an official Nvidia Cloud Partner in 2023, per Bloomberg, and purchased more than $4.8 billion worth of Nvidia chips over roughly two years, per AP.

• Alice Huang bragged about her access to Jensen Huang and Nvidia connections to help raise funds for her businesses, according to the NYT.
• A Megaspeed employee told Culper that Jensen Huang would visit Megaspeed sometimes, adding that Jensen and Alice had a "very close" relationship.

Follow the money: Megaspeed's balance sheet ballooned from $33 million at the end of 2023 to nearly $3 billion a year later, according to corporate records examined by Culper, a short seller with a financial interest in Nvidia's decline.

• Much of that growth involved approximately $2.9 billion in refundable deposits from an unidentified source, per Culper.
• The financing raises additional questions about Megaspeed's relationship with Chinese businesses.

More recently, in early 2025, Alice Huang and business partner Kang Wei told investors they had "no problem securing GPUs" and touted Alibaba as a customer for a new data center project, according to the Financial Times.

What are authorities investigating?

State of play: U.S. authorities, including the Commerce Department and Justice Department, have investigated whether Megaspeed helped Chinese companies obtain advanced Nvidia processors and whether that violated export-control restrictions.

• The company disputed illegal chip transfers in December 2025. The company has said it plans to work with U.S. authorities over the investigation.

What's next: Three Republican House committee chairs have requested a closed-door briefing with Jensen Huang on Nov. 18 about his interactions with Alice Huang and how Nvidia protects itself against foreign threats.