Nvidia CEO faces scrutiny after reports of a Chinese spy operation

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang is facing fresh scrutiny after a series of reports said U.S. officials believe a technology executive was recruited by Chinese intelligence to gather information on him. Nvidia says any contact with the person named in those reports was ordinary business and that no sensitive information was shared.

The executive named in the reporting is Alice Huang, who has been described as working at the firm Megaspeed. Accounts in major newspapers, amplified on Saturday, said U.S. officials concluded she had been recruited to collect information on Jensen Huang and potentially to influence debates over shipping advanced chips to China. The Chinese government has publicly denied using her to spy on him.

House Republican committee chairs had already asked Huang to brief Congress about the reported relationship and about Nvidia's safeguards for sensitive information. They gave him a deadline of November 11 to accept a meeting date or propose another one. A Democratic senator, Chris Coons of Delaware, said Saturday that Congress would investigate.

Nvidia has repeatedly said Jensen Huang's interactions with Alice Huang were typical business contacts. The company did not immediately provide a new comment to Saturday inquiries. The reports describe intelligence assessments and journalistic findings, not a public charging document or a completed congressional inquiry.

Huang has been one of the world's most closely watched corporate leaders because Nvidia's chips sit at the center of the race to build advanced artificial intelligence systems. Allegations involving espionage and export policy are therefore politically charged. They remain unproven in court, and both the company and Beijing have rejected key parts of the published accounts.