The relationship between the CEO of Nvidia and an alleged spy facilitated the shipment of chips to China worth 7.5 billion dollars

New YorkThe relationship between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and a Chinese businesswoman –allegedly a Beijing spy– facilitated the shipment of the company's chips to Chinese firms worth at least $7.5 billion, as reported on Tuesday by the media outlet The Information. According to the report, Alice Huang (the alleged spy), along with her husband and her sister, created a network of companies in China and Singapore to acquire Nvidia chips. Alice Huang and Jensen Huang (Nvidia CEO) are not related.

At the center of this network was Shanghai Century Litong, a company based in China founded in June 2023. In October, this company achieved preferred partner status in Nvidia's cloud, which gave it priority access to the company's chips, according to The Information. According to the report, Century Litong was initially linked to Alice Huang's sister, Huang Yu, through a founding shareholder that was, in reality, controlled by Huang Yu before she left the company in 2024.

When orders for Nvidia chips –subject to United States export restrictions– were blocked, Alice Huang leveraged her ties with Nvidia and its distributors to secure supplies. This allowed about 240,000 chips of the H100, H200, and some A100 models to enter China, according to the report.

Century Litong rented capacity and operated data centers using Nvidia chips, some of which were prohibited from being sold in China. According to The Information, some of these chips ended up being used by Alibaba, Tencent, and smaller Chinese laboratories dedicated to artificial intelligence.

The report also points out that Alice Huang held an executive position at Megaspeed, a company registered in Singapore linked to Century Litong. This firm has been investigated by U.S. authorities in connection with the shipment of Nvidia chips from Southeast Asia to China. Megaspeed obtained Nvidia chips either by renting computing capacity from data centers in Southeast Asia to Chinese clients, or by physically shipping the hardware to China. According to The Information, the hardware acquired by Speedmatrix—a Malaysian subsidiary created by Megaspeed in 2024—ended up reaching Century Litong. The report notes that Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, used her relationship with Jensen Huang to gain credibility, maintaining great ambiguity about her role and avoiding leaving a paper trail.