Suspected Chinese intelligence asset gained access to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: report

U.S. officials concluded that a former executive at a Singapore-based cloud computing company who was suspected of collecting intelligence for the Chinese government gained access to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang , according to a report by The New York Times. The former executive, Alice Huang or Huang Le, worked in a leadership role at a company called Megaspeed that bought chips from Nvidia.

Megaspeed uses the chips to build data centers and then rents out the computing power, and the report noted the firm has faced scrutiny from U.S. agencies. The Times reported that she was under surveillance from U.S. officials tasked with preventing China from evading export controls that restrict transfers of high-end AI chips, when they learned that the suspected Chinese intelligence asset had met with the Nvidia CEO multiple times.

Nvidia said the CEO Jensen Huang has meetings with thousands of customer executives per year, and that the meetings with Alice Huang weren't unusual or unexpected. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images) That discovery reportedly alarmed U.S. officials because of the sensitive information she could glean from the lead of the world's largest chipmaker, as the Nvidia CEO had also developed a relationship with President Donald Trump through discussions about AI tech and export controls.

NVIDIA CEO DRAWS LINE ON AI SAFETY AFTER ALARMING INCIDENTS: 'IF IT’S NOT READY, JUST HOLD IT BACK' The Times reported that Trump was briefed on the situation about a year ago but took no action, as U.S. officials at the time didn't believe that the Nvidia CEO knew she was gathering intelligence for China , though it's unclear whether intelligence officials have revised that assessment.

Huang was reportedly never warned by U.S. officials about Alice Huang's alleged intelligence-gathering for China, though some senior Trump administration officials now doubt he could have remained unaware of her activities on some level. NVIDIA CEO JENSEN HUANG RIPS 'THE BAND-AID OFF' AS AI CHIP GIANT RESETS EXPECTATIONS President Donald Trump has developed a relationship with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang through discussions of AI and tech issues. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) The Chinese government rejected the allegations as "groundless smears and slanders," while Nvidia said that the chief executive's meetings with Alice Huang were "not unusual or unexpected." "Meetings with customers are part of a CEO's job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year," an Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

"We're confident that if the U.S. government believes that any person is a threat to American industry, it would let us know." The spokesperson added that "Megaspeed has been no different than many other regional cloud customers." NVIDIA TO BUY AI PLATFORM HUGGING FACE FOR NEARLY $13B Ticker Security Last Change Change % NVDA NO DATA AVAILABLE - - - The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

In January, the Trump administration eased restrictions on Nvidia AI chip exports to China, with the Commerce Department allowing transfers of Nvidia's H200 chip on a case-by-case basis. The president said in advance of the agency's rule that the chip sales would be permitted in exchange for a 25% fee paid to the U.S. government and added that the deal would be monitored to protect national security interests.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital's James Cirrone contributed to this report.