Espionage is supposed to be a secretive business, and spies are supposed to be virtually invisible.
asserted
spies → suppose → ?
That hasn’t been the case for Alice Huang, the mysterious Shanghai executive who formed a romantic relationship with Jensen Huang, the founder of Nvidia, one of America’s most powerful tech companies.
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who → form → companies
Many questions have arisen since it emerged that US intelligence believes that Huang (no relation of Jensen’s) is an asset recruited by the Chinese intelligence services to spy on behalf of Beijing.
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Huang → arise → Beijing
This morning’s newsletter explains what we know about the story, and what it tells us about the effectiveness of Chinese espionage.
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it → explain → espionage
That’s after the headlines.
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That → ’ → headlines
Five big stories
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UK | Ministers are considering changing the law to force the entertainment industry to better protect women and children in the wake of the revelations over David Walliams and the conviction of Russell Brand.
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Ministers → consider → Brand
The UK government has appointed the world’s first special representative for climate security, in the strongest sign yet of fears that climate breakdown will bring chaos to the country.
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breakdown → appoint → country
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US midterms | Democrat Scott Colom has become the first Black senator in Mississippi to be elected since Reconstruction, in a stunning upset after more than a week of vote counting in one of the country’s most reliably red states.
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Colom → become → states
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Europe | Millions of people across Spain have joined the country’s first general strike in 14 years, setting up picket lines to protest against soaring housing prices before an election in which the far right could be catapulted into power.
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right → join → power
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Technology | Police officers risk arresting innocent people, especially from ethnic minorities, if they treat inaccurate facial recognition data as evidence, an official report has found.
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report → risk → evidence
In depth: Everything we know (or don’t) about the Nvidia affair
Last month, the New York Times reported that Jensen Huang had formed a “close relationship” with Alice Huang, the former executive of a Singapore-based computing company, Megaspeed.
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Huang → know → company
Megaspeed is a customer of Nvidia; it buys the extremely valuable chips they produce, which are essential for powering AI, and rents computing space to Chinese companies.
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which → buy → companies
The US government had already been investigating whether Megaspeed could be flouting US restrictions and smuggling chips into China – allegations that both Nvidia and Megaspeed deny.
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Nvidia → investigate → that
US intelligence officials, who had been conducting surveillance on Alice Huang, eventually concluded she was a Chinese intelligence asset who had been passing on information to Beijing.
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who → conduct → Beijing
The intelligence behind this assessment is classified, so we don’t know exactly what they found – or which intelligence body was conducting the surveillance.
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body → classify → surveillance
Nvidia said Jensen Huang’s interactions with Alice Huang were “not unusual or unexpected”, but on Sunday, Huang admitted in a letter to his employees that he had been having an affair.
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he → say → affair
My actions hurt her and our children,” he said, adding that he was “deeply sorry”.
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he → hurt → her
Nvidia’s valuation is inextricably linked to Huang.
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valuation → link → Huang
By yesterday, $430bn (5.5%) had been wiped off its share price, and in the early hours of this morning, that figure ballooned to about $600bn following reports that Nvidia’s board was deciding whether to oust Huang (you can follow the latest on that here).
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you → wipe → that
The company has appointed outside counsel to review the pair’s relationship and says it has no reason to believe that secrets or national security were compromised.
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secrets → appoint → reason
Did Nvidia’s board know that US intelligence suspected Alice Huang was a spy?
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Huang → know → ?
What evidence led US intelligence to conclude she was spying for China?
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she → lead → China
What information could she have passed to Beijing?
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she → pass → Beijing
Reporters and sleuths on Chinese social media have been trying to get to the bottom of who the Megaspeed chief really is.
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chief → try → bottom
On Tuesday, the Financial Times published an interesting report (£) about Alice Huang’s backstory.
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Times → publish → backstory
She was born in the rural area of Hunan, worked as a journalist at China’s state broadcaster, then at HSBC and the investment bank Citic Securities.
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She → bear → HSBC
In 2015, she joined an investment management company Hexi.
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she → join → company
There, she met financier Kang Wei.
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she → meet → Wei
The two became romantically involved, and together they reinvented themselves as AI entrepreneurs.
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they → become → entrepreneurs
In 2023, Huang and her business partners acquired Megaspeed, a Singaporean subsidiary of a Chinese gaming company, which she and Wei aimed to turn into a datacentre business.
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she → acquire → business
According to the FT’s report, the two pitched investors on their ability to secure access to Nvidia chips.
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two → accord → chips
Nobody knows exactly when Jensen Huang met Alice Huang, when their relationship became romantic, or what information she might have passed to Beijing while it was going on.
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it → know → Beijing
The earliest picture of them together is at an after-party following a tech trade show in Taipei, taken in 2024.
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picture → follow → 2024
As Aisha Down and Dan Milmo pointed out earlier this week, Jensen Huang is close to Donald Trump, so it’s possible that Alice Huang could have gained glimpses into US AI policy as it was being formed, into Trump’s thinking on AI, or into Nvidia’s company strategy.
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it → point → strategy
But without seeing the evidence, all this is speculation.
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this → see → evidence
What does this reveal about Chinese espionage?
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this → reveal → espionage
The US has been historically cautious about allowing AI chips to end up in Chinese hands.
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chips → allow → hands
In 2022, Joe Biden’s administration introduced the Chips and Science Act, which restricted the sale of US chips in China, banning the export of most Nvidia chips.
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which → introduce → chips
“The Chinese have a very strong pedigree for industrial espionage and copying other nations’ technologies,” Steve Tsang, the director of the SOAS China Institute, tells me.
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Tsang → have → me
“They’ve been doing this for decades.
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They → do → decades
…and 44 more, not listed.
The Aporia
