The truth behind photo of Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Chinese ‘spy’ drinking whiskey

Suspected Chinese spy Alice Huang was photographed cozying up and sipping whiskey with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at a bar together in 2024 — after she allegedly bragged to other tech execs about her influence over the tech titan.

Alice Huang, a top exec at a Singapore-based data center company, was in a Taipei bar with fellow tech bigwigs in June 2024 when she boasted that she could get Jensen Huang to join them, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“Jensen’s a great friend of mine,” the alleged Beijing operative vaunted to the group, according to another tech exec who was present.

She fired off a text message – and moments later Jensen Huang, 63, arrived and ordered a whiskey.
He spoke to the executives for a short amount of time and then left alone, saying he was tired, the witness said.

The photo from the night posted on social media shows Jensen Huang, in his trademark leather jacket, and Alice Huang, donning a sleeveless top and pearl necklace, sitting side by side on a red banquette.

Months later, US authorities launched an investigation into whether Alice Huang’s company, Megaspeed, was illegally smuggling advanced Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) into China to circumvent US export restrictions on the cutting-edge technology.

Authorities in Taiwan and Singapore also began looking into Alice Huang’s ties to China and its intelligence services, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Jensen Huang admitted this week that he had cheated on his longtime wife with the Chinese exec.
US intelligence agencies concluded that Alice Huang — who has no relation to Jensen Huang— was secretly funneling information to China’s feared spy agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), according to a months-old secret memo from the State Department.

Beijing has denied she was working on its behalf.

Nvidia’s board announced on Sunday that it had launched an investigation into whether Jensen Huang was a “target of a foreign intelligence effort.”

“While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the Board’s inquiry will examine all available information,” the board said in a statement.