Shewas building a career in Chinese finance before turning to tech with a leadership role at a data centre company in Singapore. He is the high-profile CEO of Nvidia, the California-based company that makes computer chips relied upon by advanced artificial intelligence systems. An affair between Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Alice Huang, who reportedly was suspected of working as a spy for Beijing, has rocked the tech and political worlds.

The Chinese businesswoman also known as Huang Le had a close relationship with Jensen Huang, according to reports over the past month by the New York Times.

The newspaper also reported that top policymakers were informed in a memo that intelligence indicated she was a spy for China's Ministry of State Security, recruited to influence Nvidia to make its most advanced chips more available in China. In one widely shared photograph of the pair, Jensen Huang and people surrounding him are holding drinks in Taipei, while Alice Huang sits behind him, apparently watching him in conversation. The picture was posted in 2024 by software company NetThunder to its LinkedIn page. It remains unclear how long the affair lasted, and when exactly the relationship might have ended. The Associated Press was unable to reach Alice Huang for comment.

Who is Alice Huang?

Publicly available information about Alice Huang is scant. She was a Chinese finance executive before becoming involved in artificial intelligence, data centres and computer chips.

In 2023, she became a director at Singapore-based Megaspeed, which describes itself as an “NVIDIA cloud partner”. Last year, Megaspeed faced scrutiny from the US over its alleged skirting of US export restrictions and routing of a large amount of advanced Nvidia chips for Chinese users. Megaspeed was incorporated in 2015 in Singapore with the name 7Road International, after being spun off as the overseas arm of a Chinese video game developer, according to corporate registration records.

Filings show that in March 2023, it renamed itself Megaspeed International, with all of the shares transferred to Huang Le Limited, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.

That same month, Alice Huang became Megaspeed's controlling shareholder, according to research by the C4ADS, a Washington-based nonprofit focused on global security.

But by November 2023, she was no longer listed as a director at Megaspeed, and all her shares were transferred to a Singaporean businessman, Tan Yong Pong, who also is known as James Tan.

While public records suggest Alice Huang left Megaspeed, short seller Culper Research issued a report in May this year that cited a Megaspeed employee saying Huang was “actually still our boss” and was still involved in the company's daily operations.

Before Megaspeed, Alice Huang previously held senior positions at the Chinese firm Shanghai Hexi Investment Co. from around 2015 to 2017, according to social media posts and records from Simuwang, a Chinese private equity database.

Her roles at Hexi included deputy general manager, executive director and member of the investment committee, according to Hexi's social media posts, among possible other roles.

Hexi's founder Kang Wei, who appeared on some records alongside Alice Huang, was fined in 2018 by China's securities regulator 400,000 yuan (USD 60,000) over financial misconduct behaviours while Hexi was fined 17.7 million yuan (USD 2.7 million).

Before that, Alice Huang worked at HSBC's Hong Kong private banking arm and at CITIC Securities, a Chinese investment bank.

HSBC and CITIC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on her employment history. Beijing has refuted claims that Alice Huang was a Chinese spy. Its Foreign Ministry said this week that the “Chinese spy allegation is unsubstantiated. It is nothing but smears against China”.

Why Megaspeed is at the centre of the controversy

With the emergence of the latest scandal, Singapore-based AI computing company Megaspeed, where Alice Huang was a senior executive, is once again under the spotlight. Megaspeed, an Nvidia customer, was originally incorporated in 2015 before changing its name to Megaspeed International in 2023. Nvidia lists Megaspeed as a partner on its website, while Megaspeed says on its website it's “a core business partner of NVIDIA's computing power cloud business in the Asia-Pacific region”. It was the overseas gaming arm of Shenzhen-based developer 7Road Holdings Ltd. Late last year, Megaspeed denied accusations following reports that it was routing Nvidia chips to China, saying in a statement on its website that “there has been no evidence of any violations concerning the illicit transfer of chips or any illegal activities”. Singapore's government said in late October, after fresh reports that Alice Huang was accused of being a Chinese intelligence source, that authorities were investigating Megaspeed and that Singapore “does not condone businesses” circumventing or violating other countries' export controls. However, it said, there were no investigations conducted in respect to Alice Huang. Megaspeed did not immediately respond to a request for comment.