Nvidia without Jensen Huang. What lies ahead for Asian chipmakers?

Multiple US intelligence sources confirm the US intelligence community is still unraveling the relationship between Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman who had an affair with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and the Chinese government. Current intelligence gathered on Huang does not definitively prove she was secretly spying for Beijing, according to various sources.

There exists disagreement among US officials about the solidness of evidence suggesting Huang was recruited by China's MSS to spy on the Nvidia CEO and, consequently, on American policymakers. The FBI has been probing Huang's affair for a year, but DOJ has not reached any conclusions yet. President Donald Trump expressed uncertainty about whether Huang was a spy on Thursday, stating he does not know if the woman was a spy or not.

Some individuals at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA argue the characterization of Huang as a Chinese spy is inaccurate and overblown, while others believe her status as a successful Chinese businesswoman working with a powerful US company implies she posed a significant counterintelligence risk. Huang's company, Megaspeed, is a major purchaser of Nvidia chips, and investigations by the DOJ and Commerce Department are underway to determine if the firm diverted restricted Nvidia chips to China.

This has raised questions about why Megaspeed was not placed on the entity list, which restricts trade with potentially risky companies. Despite ongoing investigations, some officials feel the focus on Huang's ties to China has overshadowed broader concerns about the US government's failure to prevent the export of advanced technology to China.