Rubio warning on Jensen Huang and alleged Chinese spy relationship before Trump China trip, Digi Mart USA News: The New York Times reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, before President Donald Trump’s May visit to Beijing, provided senior officials with a memo warning that NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang had a close relationship with a Chinese spy. Officials reportedly worried that Huang could influence Trump’s artificial intelligence policy.
The Times reported on Nov. 6 that Huang had a close relationship with Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, a Chinese national and senior executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center company. The newspaper said Alice Huang was a spy for China’s Ministry of State Security.
The Financial Times reported that the two had once been in a relationship, but NVIDIA has said multiple times that their interactions were not unusual.
On Nov. 8, the Times followed up, citing people briefed on the matter, and reported that Rubio had overseen the drafting of a highly classified memo this spring that alerted senior government officials to Huang’s close relationship with a Chinese spy. The memo was based on classified intelligence obtained through electronic surveillance of Alice Huang.
Alice Huang is a Chinese citizen who had served as a senior executive at a Singapore-headquartered company that bought NVIDIA advanced artificial intelligence chips, which is under investigation over alleged illegal exports to China. U.S.
officials concluded that she and Jensen Huang had a close relationship, although they share a surname and are not related. She has reportedly been employed by China’s Ministry of State Security as a spy.
Earlier reports did not mention that Rubio had warned government officials about the matter. Jensen Huang is a key figure in the explosive growth of artificial intelligence and retains influence with Trump on AI issues.
The Times said Rubio’s involvement highlights senior officials’ serious concern about the relationship and the alleged espionage involvement.
The report said Huang was initially not included on the list of major business and technology executives invited to accompany Trump on the trip. It is unclear whether his absence from the invitation list was related to the memo.
People familiar with the matter said many officials in the government were concerned that Huang could influence Trump’s loosened approach to AI regulation.
