Industry & policy Updated
UPDATE: A US memo alleges Nvidia's Jensen Huang had a romantic relationship with a suspected Chinese intelligence recruit, the Financial Times reports
Published:
Update to the 1 November morning edition, which carried Donald Trump's first comment on the New York Times report about Alice Huang. The new development, first reported on 7 November: the Financial Times says a memo that US officials wrote earlier this year, based on intelligence, alleges that Jensen Huang was romantically involved with Alice Huang, an executive at the Singapore-based data-centre company Megaspeed, according to accounts of the FT report by Kurdistan 24 and Chosun Ilbo. The people told the FT that US intelligence believes she was recruited by China's Ministry of State Security.
TechCrunch reported that the New York Times was first to report the memo, which it says claims Alice Huang was recruited to spy on Jensen Huang, and that the FT added the claim of a romantic relationship. According to Kurdistan 24's account of the FT report, the memo was shared with a small group of senior US officials shortly before Trump's May summit in Beijing. No charges have been announced, and the memo has not been published.
Nvidia, the White House and the CIA declined to comment on the memo or the relationship, Chosun Ilbo reported. Nvidia has said that Jensen Huang meets thousands of customer executives a year and that its customers receive ordinary business information, not sensitive trade secrets or national-security data. China's foreign ministry called the earlier allegations baseless speculation.
Also new to this journal since the last update: on 5 November the Republican chairs of the House Foreign Affairs, China and Intelligence committees, Brian Mast, John Moolenaar and Rick Crawford, published a letter asking Huang to give their committees a joint closed-door briefing on 18 November on his interactions with Alice Huang and on Nvidia's protections against foreign espionage. They asked him to accept that date or propose another by 11 November.
Caveat. The Financial Times article is paywalled and was not read; its content here comes from Kurdistan 24's and Chosun Ilbo's summaries and TechCrunch's account. The memo is unpublished, its claims come from anonymous people describing US intelligence, and none of it has been tested in any proceeding.
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