Justice Department Has Not Determined Whether Alice Huang Was a Chinese Spy
Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed an FBI investigation as Jensen Huang stepped down from Nvidia amid scrutiny of his relationship with the Chinese businesswoman.
By Vanessa Lopez ·
The US Justice Department has not reached a conclusion on whether Alice Huang, the Chinese businesswoman who had an affair with former Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, was a Chinese spy, Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Thursday. Speaking at a press conference, Blanche confirmed that the FBI was investigating reports that she had worked for the Chinese government.
President Donald Trump also emphasized the unresolved question in an interview released later on Thursday. Asked on the "Straight Shooter" podcast whether Jensen Huang should have resigned, Trump said his view depended on whether the allegations about Alice Huang were substantiated. He did not say that her alleged role as a spy had been established.
"But if the woman was a spy, yes. If the woman was not a spy, perhaps it would be different," Trump said. He also told the podcast that he had spoken with Jensen Huang on Wednesday. Separately, The New York Times reported on Thursday that Trump had called Huang on Tuesday and encouraged him to fight to keep his job, citing two people briefed on that conversation.
Jensen Huang stepped down on Thursday, following a sequence of events stretching back more than a year. An October 2025 report in The New York Times had linked him to Alice Huang, who previously held an executive position at Megaspeed, a company based in Singapore.
Megaspeed was an official Nvidia cloud partner. That sought-after designation gave the company priority access to Nvidia chips. Later reporting said US intelligence officials believed Alice Huang was acting on behalf of Chinese intelligence. Beijing has denied that she is a spy, and she could not be reached for comment.
Singapore's Home Affairs Ministry said on Thursday that Alice Huang had left the country in February and was subsequently barred from returning following an investigation into possible offenses. The ministry explicitly said that its investigation was unrelated to espionage.
On November 8, Jensen Huang acknowledged that he had been unfaithful to his wife but offered no details about the relationship. His departure on Thursday came as US officials continued to investigate the reports concerning Alice Huang, with Blanche and Trump both saying that the question of whether she was a spy remained unresolved.
