Trump ignored intel on Chinaβs Nvidia spy to protect companyβs stock, report says
Donald Trump apparently is so aligned with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huangβwho has become the presidentβs key advisor on AIβthat he ignored intelligence indicating that Huang was the target of a βChinese spy plot,β and did so partly to protect Nvidiaβs stock.
The New York Times spoke with people briefed on US intelligence agenciesβ surveillance and granted them anonymity to discuss findings drawn from βclassified intelligence.β According to sources, about a year ago, Trump was briefed that βBeijing was getting reports from someone with direct accessβ to Huang. That βsomeoneβ was Alice Huang, or Huang Le, a Chinese citizen and former top executive at a Singapore cloud company called Megaspeed.
According to sources, the US had already suspected that Alice Huangβwho is not related to Jensen Huangβwas helping China evade export controls to gain access to high-end Nvidia chips through Megaspeed. But it alarmed investigators to discover that she may have used her role at Megaspeed to gain direct access to Jensen Huang. Itβs now believed she may have leveraged that closeness to feed China intel not only on one of Americaβs leading AI companies, but also to influence Trumpβs thinking on AI. As Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noted last month ahead of Trumpβs AI talks with China President Xi Jinping, βthe president is completely aligned with Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia.β


Β© KENT NISHIMURA / Contributor | AFP