Trump was briefed on alleged China spy plot involving Jensen Huang but took no action: Report
WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump received intelligence briefings about Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman suspected of spying for Beijing and reportedly having close ties to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, according to a report by The New York Times.
Despite being informed of the concerns, Trump did not act on the information.
Officials briefed him about a year ago, but his decision to hold back was reportedly linked to concerns about Nvidia's business operations and ongoing US-China trade negotiations.
Surveillance revealed that Alice had both professional and personal connections with Jensen.
This raised concerns among US officials, who feared China could use these connections to gain access to sensitive American AI research.
Despite these concerns, authorities did not give Jensen a defensive intelligence briefing, a standard warning issued when officials believe a foreign government may be targeting someone.
Trump held back intelligence on alleged China spy
The report says Trump was concerned that taking action against Nvidia would hurt the company's chip sales and complicate relations with China.
Nvidia sits at the heart of the global AI industry and accounts for about 8% of the S&P 500's total value.
When Trump was briefed, US officials did not believe Jensen, Nvidia's CEO, knew that Alice was allegedly collecting information for China.
However, some senior officials reportedly insisted that he could not have been unaware of her activities.
Nvidia pushed back against the allegations, saying its work with Alice's company, Megaspeed, was part of regular business operations and that it had never shared trade secrets or information related to national security.
Megaspeed, an AI computing company based in Singapore, was launched in 2023 after 7Road, a Chinese gaming and cloud firm, spun off its overseas division.
Megaspeed partners with Nvidia and distributes its technology across the Asia-Pacific region.
Since 2024, US investigators have been looking into Megaspeed over concerns that Nvidia chips were being routed through Southeast Asia.
The Justice Department took charge of the investigation this year, The New York Times reported.
The US restricts the sale of Nvidia's most advanced chips to China, but investigators suspect that some of the hardware still reaches Chinese buyers, potentially through companies such as Megaspeed.
The company purchases the chips and rents out computing power to various businesses, including some based in China.
Jensen Huang's ties with Trump administration examined
Jensen Huang has become one of Trump's key tech advisers. In April 2025, he met with the president and strongly opposed restrictions on Nvidia's chip sales to China.
According to people familiar with the meeting, Trump was receptive to Huang's arguments.
Not long afterward, Nvidia committed $500 billion to expanding its US manufacturing operations. The company also donated at least $20 million to Trump's ballroom fund, the report said.
Then, in December 2025, Trump approved Nvidia's sale of an older generation of chips to China, provided the government received a share of the revenue.
However, significant questions remain about the alleged intelligence operation.
It is still unclear what information Alice is suspected of sending to Beijing or why US officials did not warn Jensen about their suspicions.
Alice did not respond to The New York Times' request for comment. The White House, CIA and National Security Agency all declined to comment.
Megaspeed said it was looking into the allegations and had hired outside counsel to conduct an internal review. The company also said it had informed the US government that it was ready to cooperate.
Nvidia spokesperson John Rizzo said the company trusted the US government to notify it if officials believed anyone posed a threat to American industry.
