Nvidia CEO's affair with alleged spy aided $7.5 billion in China chip shipments, Information reports

Nvidia CEO ​Jensen Huang's affair with a ​Chinese businesswoman alleged to ‌be a ​spy for Beijing facilitated the shipment of at least $7.5 billion worth of the company's chips to Chinese ‌firms, The Information reported on Tuesday, citing two people who know her.

Alice Huang, along with her husband and sister, built a network of companies across China ‌and Singapore to acquire Nvidia chips, according to the report. At the ‌center of the network was Shanghai Century Litong, a China-based company founded in June 2023 that secured preferred cloud partner status with Nvidia by October, giving it priority access to ⁠the company's ​chips, The Information ⁠reported.

When orders for Nvidia chips subject to US export restrictions stalled, Alice Huang used ⁠ties to Nvidia and its distributors to secure supplies, helping move about 240,000 H100, H200 ​and some A100 chips into China, according to the report. Nvidia did not ⁠immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Alibaba, Tencent, Megaspeed and Shanghai Century ⁠Litong were ​not immediately available for comment outside regular business hours.

The chipmaker's shares closed down more than 4% on Monday after its board launched an ⁠internal investigation into whether 63-year-old Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation. ⁠The FBI is ⁠also looking into the matter. Huang told Nvidia employees he had been unfaithful to his wife, without providing details ‌of the ‌relationship.