Report: Trump did nothing with intel that China planted spy close to Nvidia CEO

According to the New York Times, citing people briefed on US intelligence surveillance, Donald Trump was briefed about a year ago that Beijing was getting reports from someone with direct access to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, but he did nothing with the intelligence, partly to protect Nvidia's stock. Sources say the US already suspected Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen and former top executive at Singapore cloud company Megaspeed, of helping China evade export controls to obtain high-end Nvidia chips, and investigators were alarmed to learn she may have used her role to gain direct access to Jensen Huang. The story matters because it ties AI export controls, geopolitics and the president's personal alignment with Nvidia's chief executive into a single conflict-of-interest question.

• Ars Technica2026-10-29 18:29