Before it became a crisis that toppled one of the tech industry’s best-known leaders, the story began, according to the Wall Street Journal, with an evening in Taipei in June 2024 on the sidelines of an annual computer industry show that brought together several chief executives.
According to an article by Robbie Whelan and Amrith Ramkumar, Alice Huang, then in a senior role at Singapore data-centre firm Megaspeed, bet she could persuade Jensen Huang to join them; minutes after a text message, he did turn up, before leaving alone.
US authorities later opened an investigation into whether Megaspeed had illegally diverted Nvidia AI chips to China, while authorities in Taiwan and Singapore opened inquiries into Alice Huang’s possible links to China. Reports say Nvidia halted all sales and shipments to Megaspeed in June 2025.
Earlier this week Nvidia said it had opened an inquiry into whether its chief executive had been targeted by a foreign intelligence service, after reports that the US government had concluded Alice Huang was passing information to Chinese intelligence. The board said there was “nothing to suggest” national security or company secrets had been compromised.
In an internal memo, Jensen Huang apologised for what he called his “betrayal” of his family and colleagues, saying: “I love our country and our company.” The affair comes amid debate within the US administration over export policies for advanced chips to China, which Nvidia has long lobbied to ease.
Source: Wall Street Journal (via BBC Arabic), Sky News Arabia
