U.S. intelligence officials believe a senior executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed used her ties to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to gather sensitive information for Beijing, The New York Times reported. President Trump received a briefing on the espionage findings about a year ago but chose not to intervene, as he was concerned that disrupting Nvidia’s business could damage the stock market and complicate trade with China. According to the report, Jensen Huang was never given a defensive briefing to warn him that he was the target of the operation.
Nvidia disputed the claim that customer interactions exposed trade secrets or national security information, stating that its CEO meets thousands of executives every year as part of his duties. The investigation is linked to separate allegations that Megaspeed illegally diverted tens of thousands of Nvidia chips to China. Megaspeed has hired outside counsel to investigate the claims and is continuing the construction of a 300MW data center in Malaysia.
