Trump vows “close” scrutiny of reported China spy plot targeting Nvidia chief Jensen Huang, calling him “brilliant” and “above board”
President Donald Trump said on Saturday the United States will examine very closely allegations that Chinese intelligence targeted Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang through a businesswoman linked to a Singapore data-centre firm, while saying he would keep Huang as an adviser unless something contrary emerged.
United States President Donald Trump said on Saturday, 1 November 2026, that his administration will examine very closely allegations that Chinese intelligence targeted Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, voicing strong support for the semiconductor boss whom he called a “great, brilliant person”. Speaking to reporters at his Florida residence, Trump said he held Huang in high regard and was previously unaware of the specific intelligence assessment at the centre of the row.
“We’re going to check it out very closely,” Trump said, according to Yeni Safak’s report of his remarks. Asked whether he would retain Huang as an adviser, he replied: “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.” The comments are Trump’s first public response to a New York Times report published on Thursday, 29 October, which has since been widely carried by other outlets.
The Times report, as summarised by the Indian Express, the Economic Times, Moneycontrol and the Tribune, said United States intelligence agencies had concluded that a Chinese businesswoman, Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, was an intelligence asset for Beijing. Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen and a former senior executive at Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based data-centre company, had developed a close relationship with Jensen Huang, the report said, raising concern in Washington that Beijing was receiving information from someone with direct access to one of the most influential figures in artificial intelligence.
The report said United States surveillance of Alice Huang turned up her contacts with Jensen Huang, including a photograph of the two together at a bar in Taipei in June 2024 and a business dinner in May 2025. It said American officials worried she could gain access to sensitive Nvidia technology or insight into Trump’s thinking on chip exports to China. It did not establish that Jensen Huang himself was involved in any intelligence activity or was aware of the alleged activities attributed to Alice Huang, and no one has accused him of wrongdoing.
The most politically sensitive element of the report is its account of what happened after Trump was briefed. The Times said Trump was briefed on the intelligence findings roughly a year ago but took no action, a decision the report attributed to his reluctance to disrupt Nvidia’s chip sales, which have helped drive economic activity and stock-market gains, and to further complicating trade relations with China. Trump’s statement on Saturday that he was previously unaware of the specific assessment sits uneasily alongside that account, and neither the White House, the CIA nor the National Security Agency commented to the Times.
Nvidia has defended its chief executive and its dealings with Megaspeed. Company spokesman John Rizzo said: “Jensen’s interactions with Ms. Huang are not unusual or unexpected. Meetings with customers are part of a CEO’s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year.” Nvidia said customers such as Megaspeed received ordinary business information, not trade secrets or anything tied to national security, and that it had previously investigated and debunked claims that Megaspeed was smuggling chips to China. Jensen Huang himself said the company’s dealings with Megaspeed were normal, that it had checked whether its processors had been illegally diverted to China, and that the United States government had not informed him of its suspicions about Alice Huang.
Megaspeed said its “current leadership” took the matter “extremely seriously and is committed to getting to the facts behind these allegations”, adding that outside counsel had been retained to conduct a thorough internal investigation and that it had notified the United States government that it was fully committed to cooperating. Alice Huang has not been charged with any crime, and neither has Megaspeed. Singapore authorities questioned Alice Huang in 2025 and released her, according to the reporting.
China has rejected the allegations. Beijing dismissed the report as “groundless speculation”, and Liu Chang, spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said the United States was pursuing a campaign of “groundless smears and slanders” against China. The Chinese position is that the story is an attempt to damage normal business and trade ties under the cover of national security.
The background is Washington’s long-running effort to restrict China’s access to advanced semiconductors. United States officials began looking at Megaspeed in late 2024, when a Commerce Department official visiting its data centre in Malaysia found Nvidia equipment still sitting in boxes, raising suspicions that some chips were reaching China in breach of export rules. A Malaysian sister company of Megaspeed bought at least $4.8 billion of AI equipment containing Nvidia chips between June 2024 and February 2026, according to trade records cited in the reporting. Senator Tom Cotton asked the Commerce Department in October 2025 to investigate Megaspeed, and the Justice Department took over the case this year.
What happens next is uncertain, and Trump’s promise of close scrutiny does not by itself settle any of the open questions. A closer examination could lead to tighter enforcement on chip exports, to a formal warning to Nvidia, or to nothing further if investigators find no evidence of wrongdoing by Jensen Huang or of unlawful diversion. The issue is also likely to surface in United States-China diplomacy, with the Times noting it could come up when Trump visits China next month. For now, the picture is one of an unresolved intelligence claim, a presidential endorsement of the executive at its centre, and an investigation that, by Trump’s own account, is only now being looked at closely.
