Huang acknowledged that he had been unfaithful to his wife but did not provide details about the relationship.
The State Department and White House declined to comment, the newspaper reported.
A highly classified memo drafted under the supervision of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned senior Trump administration officials months ago that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was involved in a close relationship with a woman whom US intelligence agencies believed was working for China’s top spy service, according to a report by The New York Times. The report says the memo, circulated this spring ahead of President Donald Trump’s China trip in May, was based on classified intelligence gathered through electronic surveillance of Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen and senior executive at Singapore-based AI infrastructure company Megaspeed. Rubio personally oversaw the drafting of the memo, which was distributed to administration officials holding high-level security clearances, according to The New York Times.
US officials reportedly concluded that Alice Huang had been recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security and was in a close relationship with Jensen Huang, despite the two sharing no family connection. The report notes that the warning circulated even as Jensen Huang remained one of the most influential voices shaping Trump’s approach to artificial intelligence policy. Huang has repeatedly argued against broader restrictions on AI chip exports and has advocated allowing sales of most Nvidia technology to China, with the exception of the company’s newest products.
The existence of the memo highlights that concerns about the relationship had reached the highest levels of the US government months before the matter became public.
Trump chose not to act at the time, partly because Nvidia’s leadership position in AI is considered strategically important to US competition with China and because the company’s success has been viewed as beneficial to financial markets, according to the report.
Nvidia has said Huang’s interactions with Alice Huang were consistent with meetings he routinely has with customers and industry executives. Alice Huang has not responded to requests for comment, according to The New York Times. The company has also maintained that customers such as Megaspeed do not receive classified Nvidia information.