Trump Briefed on Nvidia CEO's Alleged Chinese Spy Ties Before China Trip
US President Donald Trump was briefed in May about Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's alleged ties to a Chinese spy before inviting him on a flight to China, contradicting his earlier claims. The revelations have rattled Nvidia amid high-stakes AI competition.
US President Donald Trump was briefed in May aboard Air Force One en route to China that US intelligence had obtained sensitive information indicating that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had a relationship with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy, according to The New York Times, citing sources familiar with the matter.
US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio delivered the information to Trump shortly before Huang joined the flight at the president's invitation. This marked at least the second time within seven months that Trump had been briefed on the issue. The information contradicts Trump's remarks on Monday, when he stated he was unaware during the visit of Huang's ties to the woman, whom US officials concluded worked for China's Ministry of State Security. "No, I didn't hear about that back then," the president said when asked if he knew the details before his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The revelations have rattled Nvidia and led to a drop in its stock amid fierce competition between the US and China for artificial intelligence leadership. They have also drawn renewed attention to Huang's influence on Trump and US government policy in the sector. According to an earlier report by The New York Times, Trump received a briefing last fall regarding Huang's affair with the woman but chose not to act. When asked this week if he was briefed then, he replied that he would have to check with intelligence officials and added, "It certainly didn't leave a particularly deep impression on me."
Trump is scheduled to visit China again next week, but announced that Huang will not join him. Nevertheless, he continued to defend Huang, stating that the CEO denied knowing that the woman, Alice Huang, was a spy. "I just think he's a very decent person," the president said, adding that he does not intend to raise the issue during his upcoming meeting with Xi. Alice Huang worked as an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company that purchases advanced Nvidia chips. The US restricted direct sales of advanced chips to China in late 2022, but still permits Chinese companies to rent computing power at data centers in Southeast Asia, such as those operated by Megaspeed.
In the weeks leading up to the May visit, Rubio supervised the preparation of a memo on Huang, which was distributed to a limited number of senior administration officials but not presented to Trump. Huang was not initially included on the passenger manifest, but Trump invited him to join during a refueling stop in Alaska. Upon learning of the invitation, Rubio briefed the president, but Trump remained unimpressed by the intelligence and proceeded with his plan to have Huang on the flight. According to a US official cited by The New York Times, Huang met with the president only briefly and remained in a separate section of the aircraft for almost the entire flight. The State Department declined to comment, while the White House press office declined to provide an official on-the-record statement, though it disputed the report in a background email without elaborating.
