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Alleged Chinese spy had 'close relationship' with Nvidia boss Jensen Huang

249 points • by mgh2 • today at 5:43 PM • 165 comments • view on HN

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/29/us/politics/nvidia-china-..., https://archive.ph/K7bih


Comments

janalsncm • today at 9:00 PM

A couple of questions after reading this article. The Post is not exactly top notch journalism.

First, does her activity actually fit the definition of “espionage”?

* Espionage is the act of secretly gathering confidential, classified, or proprietary information without the owner's permission*

The most important question is what she actually sent and how secret it was. Most companies have levels of secrecy ranging from non public to highly sensitive. For example, schematics of their chip would be concerning.

Also, this seems pretty different from setting up a mic behind a TV.

Second, although the article tries very hard to imply there was some kind of infidelity, adding irrelevant details about Jensen’s family, I don’t know that any of that happened.

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zetazzed • today at 8:53 PM

Super weird that the only relationship documented in this article is two "dinners with AI executives in Asia." Does that count as a close relationship? I get invited to AI dinners in the Bay Area nonstop, and I understand they are always transactional (people wanting to sell me stuff), not actual relations with people who just happen to enjoy my presence...

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markus_zhang • today at 8:12 PM

I doubt Jensen is completely out of the scheme TBH.

motbus3 • today at 10:13 PM

I feel it is a bit naive to think Jansen would be a spy. He would hire all the spies and be the boss of both sides. It is not like he has to choose it

breppp • today at 11:00 PM

Always wondered how one chooses the profession of literal prostitution for a government

Timpanzee • today at 7:48 PM

Sounds like a good Chinese spy. Jensen Huang is the exact kind of relationship I would want my spies to foster if I was China.

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Ostatnigrosh • today at 10:08 PM

I cannot read or view any of this content because of the 100 ads that pop up.

Rapzid • today at 9:30 PM

Please can we get this fixed to point to the NY Times article; they broke this story no?

Also, New York Post? Let's do better.

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PowerElectronix • today at 8:55 PM

The honeypots are 100% the best part of being a spy or a VIP target for an intelligence agency.

On that note, they never worked on french spies as infidelity and sex stuff hold seemingly zero leverage over french men.

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madhacker • today at 9:19 PM

Jared Kushner’s direct access to the Russian oligarch is more damning than any Chinese industrial espionage campaign, which happens every day around the world. Yesterday, Russia was a hostile energy supplier; today, it is an energy-trading partner. Good or bad depends on who is in power.

dmead • today at 10:23 PM

Why is the post and the times in the same hacker news post? What's the point of this.

lurk2 • today at 8:10 PM

This is why courtiers were provided with state-mandated GFs for all of human history up until about 40 years ago.

nostrademons • today at 8:12 PM

This article has the flavor of a strategic political leak by the Trump administration, likely a prelude to blackmail to get NVidia to do something friendly to the administration. You don't have multiple "people briefed on the surveillance, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the findings are drawn from classified intelligence" unless someone high-up in the CIA is greenlighting the leak; that's a crime punishable by decades in prison. And then the whole article has the flavor of "We appreciate your continued support, Jensen, we know you have been a strong ally in public, but if you think of defying us we will hit you with espionage charges and throw you in jail. Look, the groundwork is already in the NYTimes."

Makes me wonder what the next headline is going to be, probably some deal between NVidia and the federal government over export restrictions or something.

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lakeviewterrace • today at 8:21 PM

He should call Eric Swalwell for advice.

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laimewhisps • today at 8:52 PM

Given that China is releasing open weight, self-hostable models I'd far rather NVIDIA work with them than with the US and the closed source model providers. I'd rather have a Chinese model running on my own machine with NVIDIA hardware than an Anthropic/OpenAI/X model running in a data center somewhere, for multiple reasons.

pr337h4m • today at 8:06 PM

This is an apparent nothingburger with zero hint of anything outside plain old business schmoozing on Jensen's part. 'Close relationship' is a really good weasel word (weasel phrase?).

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shironandonand • today at 9:29 PM

to be fair Jensen seems to be rubbing butts with pretty much anyone the past year. Every day I see a new video with him and some billionaire / podcaster / influencer et cetera.

The technology is honey for the flies of geopolitics.

2OEH8eoCRo0 • today at 8:06 PM

> US authorities have been investigating Megaspeed over suspicions that it helped Chinese firms circumvent US export restrictions and smuggle advanced Nvidia chips into China, the Times reported.

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paxy • today at 8:26 PM

> Roughly a year ago, Mr. Trump was briefed about the intelligence findings, which have not been previously reported, and chose not to do anything with the information. Mr. Trump has been wary of disrupting Nvidia’s chip sales, which are helping to drive the economy and the stock market, and of further complicating the trading relationship with China.

Lmao

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sirmike_ • today at 9:03 PM

[flagged]

greenchair • today at 8:27 PM

Perhaps she is the one who makes him wear that mid life crisis jacket?

imagetic • today at 9:05 PM

Content aside I am not sure why anyone on HN reads the nypost. Be better than that. Please.

tehjoker • today at 7:57 PM

"The woman, Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, is a Chinese citizen who has served as a top executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, an Nvidia customer and cloud partner that provides AI computing power to Chinese companies including Alibaba, the New York Times reported Thursday."

Do you think that when Jensen talks to Sam Altman or Amodei they don't chat on the phone with Donald Trump?? This is just a smear.

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lakeviewterrace • today at 8:39 PM

When is this industry going to have an open, honest discussion about how not getting enough trim in your younger years makes you especially vulnerable to these schemes once you acquire power and wealth?

I've seen 80 variations of this same story over the years.

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grd_dev • today at 9:48 PM

[dead]

Poudlardo • today at 8:18 PM

poor jensen huang he was obviously tricked by this malicious spy and has nothing to do with any of this (/s)

slowin • today at 8:13 PM

[flagged]

Varelion • today at 8:23 PM

I would be very interesting in seeing who this spy is, and what her relationship with him was.

brcmthrowaway • today at 8:36 PM

Has Jensen ever expressed an interest or personality?

To me, he seems the platonic ideal of the immigrant Bay Area tech worker. There's absolutely nothing inside besides the will and drive to succeed at work.

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jon128 • today at 8:53 PM

Is she relatively hot? Did he get honeytrapped? Someone like him should be aware of the meta of such shenanigans.

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zkmon • today at 8:06 PM

Sounds like a Bond movie plot.

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aurareturn • today at 8:25 PM

Looks like McCarthyism is back on the menu. Big media is out in force to push a narrative.

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autoexec • today at 8:16 PM

If she is a spy I doubt china gave her much choice. I wonder if they paid her or just threatened her loved ones. Either way, she had to hang out with Jensen Huang, poor woman.

jurschreuder • today at 8:15 PM

A spy?! Almost half the people working in usa big tech are asian. If it tips over 50% you could call the white people the spies in asian companies located in usa

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