US President Donald Trump on Saturday backed Nvidia’s Jensen Huang after a report said he had been a target of a suspected Chinese intelligence operation, saying that the United States was looking "very closely" at the issue.
"I have a lot of respect for Jensen. I didn't know about the specific thing, but I hope he's going to be OK. He's a great, brilliant person, and we want to protect our brilliant people," Trump told reporters at his Florida residence, AFP reported.
"We're going to check it out very closely," the president added.
A New York Times report on Tuesday said Huang might have been the target of a suspected Chinese intelligence operation through his association with Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, a Chinese national and senior executive at Singapore-based data centre company Megaspeed. US intelligence agencies recently found that the Megaspeed executive was working for Chinese intelligence and passing information to Beijing.
This allegedly raised concerns in Washington because of her close relationship with Jensen Huang. Megaspeed buys computing equipment powered by Nvidia chips and rents data centre capacity to businesses, including Chinese technology giant Alibaba.
{{/usCountry}}This allegedly raised concerns in Washington because of her close relationship with Jensen Huang. Megaspeed buys computing equipment powered by Nvidia chips and rents data centre capacity to businesses, including Chinese technology giant Alibaba.
{{/usCountry}}However, a spokesperson for Nvidia, John Rizzo, brushed off such concerns, saying, “Jensen’s interactions with Huang [Alice] are not unusual or unexpected. Meetings with customers are part of a CEO’s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year.”
When asked if he would retain Huang as an advisor, Trump said: "I would like to say yes. I mean, unless we find out something to the contrary, I've always found Jensen Huang to be very above board."
"But you know, you're dealing with a very complex issue," Trump added, according to AFP.
Megaspeed under US investigation since 2024
Megaspeed has been under US investigation since late 2024, when a commerce department official visited its data centre in Malaysia and found it to be suspicious. The official found that the Nvidia equipment was allegedly still packed in boxes, which suggested that it was being shipped in or out rather than installed there.
In a statement to NYT, Megaspeed said its “current leadership” takes the matter “extremely seriously and is committed to getting to the facts behind these allegations”. A person familiar with Megaspeed’s operations said that Alice has become less active in the company in the wake of American investigations.
Huang has advised Trump on AI policy and was among tech CEOs who joined the US leader on his visit to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in May.
The Taiwan-born businessman has lobbied the Trump administration to ease restrictions on Nvidia chip sales to China. Trump approved sales of older-generation Nvidia chips to China last year in exchange for a share of the revenue but rejected a proposal to allow sales of more powerful chips.