Nvidia Spy Memo: US Says Megaspeed Exec Targeted Huang

The Nvidia spy memo story deepened on Saturday, 7 November, as TechCrunch and The Verge reported that a US intelligence memo said Alice Huang, an executive linked to Singapore-based Megaspeed, was recruited by China's Ministry of State Security to gather intelligence on Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang. Nvidia says the contacts were normal business and that it shares no classified information with customers.

The claims, first reported by The New York Times and followed by the Financial Times, land as Washington debates how many advanced AI chips Nvidia should be allowed to sell to China.

What the memo reportedly says

According to TechCrunch, the memo circulated among senior Trump administration officials earlier this year. The Straits Times, citing people briefed on the intelligence, said Alice Huang was tasked with learning more about US AI chips and potentially influencing Nvidia to push for its most advanced chips to be made available to China.

The Financial Times reported that the memo also claimed Jensen Huang had a romantic relationship with Alice Huang. An Nvidia spokesperson told the NYT that his interactions with her were "not unusual". China has called the claims false, the Straits Times said.

Why Megaspeed matters for Southeast Asia

Megaspeed buys Nvidia AI chips and builds data centres in Southeast Asia, which puts the region at the heart of the debate over where advanced processors end up.

Singapore's police said on 30 October that investigations into Megaspeed are ongoing. But Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs said on 31 October that it had never investigated Alice Huang over alleged ties to China, rejecting a Wall Street Journal report. Singapore added that it does not enforce foreign export controls itself, but it does not condone firms using a Singapore base to get around them. It said four people and four companies were charged between February 2025 and July 2026 over fraud on suppliers of servers, offences that carry jail terms of up to 20 years.

What remains unclear

Much of the story rests on a memo that has not been published. None of the outlets has released the document itself, and the accounts come from people who say they were briefed on it. Neither Megaspeed nor Alice Huang has publicly set out a detailed response in the reports cited here, and no charges linked to the alleged spying have been announced.

Empty office raises export questions

A separate NYT investigation, summarised by The Verge, looked at New Matrix, a Chinese company approved by the US Commerce Department to buy Nvidia's H200 AI chips. At its listed address, reporters found "a hollow gray shell with wires dangling from the ceiling". Its owners have ties to a Chinese private equity firm blacklisted by Washington since 2024.

The Verge notes that the Trump administration relaxed Biden-era limits on chip sales to China after Nvidia agreed to give the government a 15 percent cut of those sales. Nvidia told the NYT it sells "the first, best and most of our technology in America".

What happens next in the Nvidia spy memo case

• Singapore's police inquiry into Megaspeed continues.
• Pressure is growing on the Commerce Department to tighten vetting of approved Chinese buyers.

For Thailand, which is courting large AI data centre investments, the case shows how closely Washington is watching where Nvidia chips end up in the region. Developers and their customers could face closer checks on who ultimately uses the servers, as US officials push for proof that restricted chips are not ending up in China.

Read more on this theme in our coverage of Thailand's role in the AI supply chain, the recent tech stock sell-off and OpenAI's trillion-dollar valuation.

The memo was reported by TechCrunch, with further detail from The Verge.

Photo: Nvidia headquarters in Santa Clara, California, at the centre of the Nvidia spy memo reports (Coolcaesar via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).