Alice Huang, who is suspected of being a Chinese spy, allegedly held stakes in companies associated with Huawei while conducting business with Nvidia and maintaining a romantic relationship with Jensen Huang, the former CEO of the company. The investigation revealed connections between Alice's enterprises and structures that provided computing power to China's largest chip manufacturer competitor.
These links were discovered by Tesari analysts, a private intelligence firm specializing in national security investigations. The firm shared its findings exclusively with CNBC, which examined Chinese corporate registries and local reports gathered by the team.
According to Brian Andersen, Vice President of National Security at Tesari and a former agent of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, these connections could form the basis for investigating potential national security threats and technology transfer. Jensen Huang acknowledged having an extramarital relationship, but the exact start date of his relationship with Alice is unknown. They were first seen together publicly in December 2023, which coincides with some of the business ties uncovered during the investigation.
Huawei is considered one of Nvidia's main competitors in China, particularly in the AI chip, processor, and networking equipment segments. This company is also viewed as a strategic enterprise for the technological goals of the Chinese government. Andersen from Tesari believes that the identified connections require attention from US authorities. He stated: 'This activity, which surfaced through analysis of Alice's network, warrants a national security and technology proliferation investigation.'
In the view of this executive, if the U.S. Department of Commerce or homeland security agencies find evidence of controlled equipment being transferred to Huawei without authorization, possible charges could include export control violations, collusion, and smuggling.
CNBC emphasizes that it is unclear whether the data center in Shenzhen itself acquired GPUs from Nvidia. The company that owned most of the facility, Zhejiang Century Huatong Group, began purchasing chips in 2023 and had business dealings with Hexi through joint participation in Century Longteng. Hexi exited its stake in the data center developer in 2024. Nevertheless, individuals connected to Alice's business network remained associated with this enterprise.
Alice's husband, Kang Wei, founded Hexi, where she previously held an executive position. In 2022, he became the head of Century Longteng, the company controlling the majority stake in the Shenzhen facility. Kang also participated in the signing ceremony of a commercial agreement with Huawei. The investigation did not determine whether Jensen Huang knew about these business ties. Nvidia and Huawei did not respond to CNBC's requests for comment. Jensen did not respond to a message left on his phone, and Alice was not found.
