Jensen Huang's affair with alleged Chinese spy further complicates Nvidia’s China problem

BEIJING, CHINA - MAY 14: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang waves as he prepares to depart the Great Hall of the People on May 14, 2026 in Beijing, China.

Alex Wong | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Following Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's admission on Sunday to an extramarital affair with alleged Chinese spy Alice Huang, the chipmaker's relationship to China is about to come under intense scrutiny in Washington, D.C.

Since October 2022, when the Biden administration announced sweeping controls to limit China's ability to obtain advanced U.S. chips, Nvidia has seen its business diminish in the world's second-largest economy. Months after an even stricter set of rules was implemented by the Trump administration, Huang said in October 2025, "We are 100% out of China."

The recent allegations against Huang, while throwing the chipmaker into crisis, have also brought attention to the Nvidia CEO's potential influence over U.S. policy on chip sales to China, where its business once flourished. Of particular interest is whether restricted Nvidia chips have reached Chinese companies through customers like Singapore-based Megaspeed, the company linked to Alice Huang.

The New York Times first reported that the Chinese businesswoman was a spy for China's Ministry of State Security, according to people briefed on the intelligence circulated in a memo among the Trump administration in the spring. China has called the allegation a smear.

Jensen Huang has been closely aligned with President Donald Trump during his second administration, helping advise the White House on AI safety regulations, while also pushing for looser restrictions on selling AI chips to China. In December, Trump said Nvidia would be allowed to ship its H200 chips to China, provided the U.S. got a 25% cut of sales. In March, Huang told reporters that Nvidia had "received purchase orders, and we're in the process of restarting our manufacturing." 

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