US President Donald Trump has said the FBI is investigating allegations involving Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and a woman suspected of working for Chinese intelligence. Trump said Huang was unaware of the woman’s alleged links to Beijing and expressed confidence that the technology executive would be fine.
Speaking at a White House briefing on Monday, Trump said he had spoken to Huang earlier in the day to check on his well-being.
“I did speak to him today just to see if he’s feeling all right, how you’re doing. He said he had absolutely no idea that the person in question was a spy,” Trump said.
The allegations have raised concerns in Washington and the technology industry about whether China may have obtained access to sensitive information concerning Nvidia’s advanced artificial intelligence chips.
China rejects espionage allegations
Trump is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping next week in Shenzhen, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Asked whether he would raise the allegations with Xi, Trump said he was unsure, while describing Huang as an honourable man.
China has rejected the claims. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun called the allegations unsubstantiated and described them as an attempt to smear the country.
Nvidia announced on Sunday that it had launched an independent investigation into reports that Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort.
Huang has acknowledged being intimate with a business executive and apologised to his wife and the company in an open letter. He did not identify the woman. He also said he would cooperate fully with the investigation and was committed to protecting Nvidia and US national security.
The New York Times reported that US intelligence had assessed that the woman was gathering information for Beijing. The newspaper identified her as Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data centre company Megaspeed International. The company had previously faced allegations of illicitly shipping advanced Nvidia chips to China.
Concerns over chip technology
The allegations have also drawn attention to Huang’s lobbying efforts to ease US restrictions on chip exports to China. Trump approved sales of Nvidia’s H200 processors to China this year, although it remains unclear whether Beijing will allow domestic companies to purchase them in significant quantities.
Nvidia shares fell around 5% in pre-market trading on Monday following the reports.
Source: India Today
