A businesswoman US intelligence reportedly believes was recruited by China to get close to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has visited Australia, according to Immigration sources, and was a top executive at a company with an office right next door to Apple’s Sydney headquarters.

Alice Huang, 42, also known as Huang Le and no relation to Jensen, was a senior executive at Singapore-based data centre and cloud operator Megaspeed, an Nvidia customer.

The Australian links raise fresh questions for Canberra about what Megaspeed’s Sydney operation does, who it deals with locally, and whether Australian security agencies have been briefed on the allegations now engulfing the world’s most valuable chip company.

The Sydney Connection

Megaspeed’s Sydney office sits alongside Apple’s Australian headquarters, in the heart of the city’s tech precinct.

Immigration sources claim Alice Huang has travelled to Australia in the past. The purpose of those visits, and who she met, is not known.

With Australia locked into the AUKUS security pact and racing to build out sovereign AI and data centre capacity, much of it running on Nvidia hardware, the scandal has implications here as well as in Washington.

The Allegations

The New York Times, citing US officials and people briefed on the surveillance, reports that Alice Huang was recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security and cultivated a close relationship with Jensen Huang to pass information back to Beijing.

The Financial Times reports a US intelligence memo also claimed the pair had a romantic relationship. Jensen Huang has been married to his college sweetheart, Lori, for more than 40 years.

Three US House committees have summoned the Nvidia chief to a closed-door briefing on his interactions with her.

Jensen Huang has told Bloomberg his dealings with her were “completely normal and not unusual”, that the US government never warned him of its suspicions, and that she no longer works at Megaspeed. Nvidia says it does not share classified information with customers.

Megaspeed says it has hired outside counsel to investigate and has told US authorities it will cooperate. Alice Huang has not commented.

How Megaspeed Got The Chips

The US bars Chinese companies from buying Nvidia’s most advanced AI processors.

Megaspeed, backed by wealthy investors in Shanghai, was restructured through a Singaporean shell company shortly before it began buying billions of dollars worth of Nvidia AI chips. Four days after the ownership change, Megaspeed was named an Nvidia cloud partner, giving it access to the most sought after components in the industry.

Megaspeed builds data centres in Southeast Asia and has rented computing capacity to Chinese firms including Alibaba.

Nvidia says earlier allegations that Megaspeed helped customers get around US export controls were investigated and debunked last year.

“Jensen’s A Great Friend Of Mine”

Alice Huang made little secret of her access, posting photos with the Nvidia boss on Chinese social media platform WeChat.

According to The Wall Street Journal, in June 2024, during the annual Computex trade show in Taipei, a group of tech executives gathered late one night at a bar. Alice Huang told the group she could likely get the Nvidia chief to join them, describing him as a great friend, according to an executive who was there.

She sent a text. Minutes later Jensen Huang walked in and ordered a whiskey. He spoke briefly to the group, then left alone, saying he was tired.

A photo from the night shows the pair side by side on a red banquette, he in his trademark leather jacket, she in a sleeveless top and pearl necklace.

Why It Matters

Jensen Huang runs one of the world’s most valuable companies, controls the technology fuelling the AI boom, and has the ear of presidents and CEOs around the globe.

Nvidia executives are now grappling with fallout that goes well beyond his marriage, his reputation, or Nvidia itself. The scandal threatens to disrupt the US AI industry, raises national security concerns for the US and its allies including Australia, and could undermine Washington’s efforts to hold its fragile technology lead over China.

One Man, Every Decision

Bloomberg reports Huang runs Nvidia from behind an enormous oval desk facing his lieutenants, with stadium seating behind them for more staff.

Every major decision flows through him, and he weighs in on even minor details. He has about 60 direct reports, far more than most tech leaders, who send him emails listing their “top five things”, which he reads and answers at all hours.

He has led the company since it was founded 33 years ago, the longest such run in Silicon Valley.

I first met Huang when he was selling graphics cards for PCs and the desktop publishing industry. From those simple, fast graphics cards Nvidia grew into one of the world’s most powerful companies, delivering a stock return of more than 700,000%.

Yet there is still no one designated to replace him, and that is now one of the biggest problems facing the company.

Nvidia shares sank a further 5.53% onlast night as investors continued to weigh the potential fallout from CEO Jensen Huang’s affair.

The embattled chip giant briefly dipped below US$4 trillion in market cap during afternoon trading, but bounced back to close above that level.

Nvidia last cleared the $4 trillion benchmark on July 9, 2025.

Shares closed more than 4% lower on Monday, the day after Huang told staff in an email that he had been “unfaithful” to his wife and had “fallen short” of his responsibilities as CEO.aximum.