The spy-romantic scandal surrounding Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is gaining momentum and revealing other details. The New York Times found that last year Huang personally defended Megaspeed, which was led by his mistress Alice Huang, by arguing that Nvidia’s audit did not reveal any illegal chip redirection to China.
Image source: Nvidia
American authorities began investigating Megaspeed’s activities back in 2024. The company imported billions of dollars worth of Nvidia equipment to Malaysia to build data centers in Southeast Asia, including for Chinese customers. At the same time, officials suspected that some of the accelerators could be illegally transported directly to China, bypassing US export restrictions.
In August 2025, US Commerce Department investigators received a letter from Nvidia General Counsel Tim Teter, who requested information about the investigation. He said that Jeff Kessler, a senior official at the Department of Commerce, allowed the company to contact department employees directly. Investigators considered such a reference to their boss unusual and reported the correspondence to management. Soon, the Ministry of Justice asked to suspend the Ministry of Trade’s work on the case, after which it took over the investigation for itself. According to The New York Times, it is now pursuing criminal proceedings against Megaspeed.
The Commerce Department said that Kessler did not give instructions to disclose any information to Nvidia and demanded that the investigation be conducted strictly according to the rules. An Nvidia representative, in turn, emphasized that the company is working with authorities to help identify smuggling attempts. The Justice Department declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.
The story received additional resonance after Nvidia announced an internal investigation into Jensen Huang. He admitted to the board of directors that he had an intimate relationship with Alice Huang. According to the NYT, American authorities consider her to be a Chinese intelligence operative, and Donald Trump was informed of these suspicions back in October 2025.
The incident once again raised the question of Nvidia’s influence on US export policy. Jensen Huang opposes restrictions on chip supplies to China and maintains contacts with Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. At the same time, American departments proposed adding Megaspeed to the list of organizations that are prohibited from receiving certain American technologies, but the Department of Commerce has not yet done this. According to the publication, the department has not added new companies to this list for more than a year—there has not been such a long break in the last 18 years.
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