House committees seek answers
The chairs of the House committees on China, foreign affairs, and intelligence wrote to Jensen Huang this week asking him to appear before a joint closed-door briefing for their committees on November 18. This follows reports that US intelligence officials believe a Chinese spying operation targeted the Nvidia chief executive. The inquiry focuses on Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, a company that has bought billions of dollars in Nvidia chips and was founded in 2023 as a spin-off from a Chinese gaming company. Lawmakers want answers about Huang’s ties to an alleged Chinese intelligence asset. The issue involves PRC infiltration and access to advanced US technology, and lawmakers want to determine how much the PRC has placed US national security at risk.
Security protocols and industry risks
Megaspeed previously faced scrutiny for potential chip smuggling. Nvidia conducted an unannounced on-site inspection at the Singapore facility and found no evidence of chip diversion. However, I find the company’s response regarding security protocols insufficient. The New York Times reported last week that Huang did not receive a "defensive briefing" from intelligence officials, who usually warn potential espionage targets about such activity. I find the lack of such a warning for a high-profile executive a major failure in protecting US industry.
Nvidia rejected the claims and stated that regional cloud customers receive ordinary business information rather than sensitive trade secrets or information relevant to national security. The company noted that Huang’s security team travels with him and said that meetings with customers are part of a CEO’s job. I find this defense thin when I consider that US authorities arrested Wally Liaw, a co-founder of Nvidia partner Supermicro, and charged him with smuggling Nvidia chips into China earlier this year. Liaw denies any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Nvidia also said it remains confident that the US government would notify the company if it thought a person was a threat to US industry. The company previously received updates from Washington about people of concern. I find the company’s dismissal of the intelligence reports problematic when the US has already seen cases of chip smuggling involving its supply chain partners.
