China's Top Spy Agency Recruited Woman Who Targeted Jensen Huang (nytimes.com) 17
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: A Chinese businesswoman who had a close relationship with the chief executive of one of the most important artificial intelligence companies in the United States was a spy for China's Ministry of State Security, Beijing's top intelligence agency, according to people briefed on U.S. surveillance. The businesswoman, Alice Huang, was recruited by the ministry to collect intelligence on Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, as part of a drive to learn more about American A.I. chips and potentially influence the company to push for its most advanced chips to be made available to China, the people said.
[...] The New York Times reported last week that Mr. Huang was a target of a Chinese intelligence operation, and that U.S. intelligence agencies were conducting electronic surveillance of Ms. Huang, a Chinese citizen, for at least a year. The Times reported that Mr. Trump had been briefed last year about Mr. Huang's relationship with her, but chose not to do anything about it. Ms. Huang speaks English well and has relationships with executives at the highest levels of the A.I. chip industry, including Mr. Huang and the leaders of Gigabyte, one of the top assemblers of Nvidia supercomputers, said people who have met her. She has attended industry conferences and private executive dinners. It is unclear when Ms. Huang first met Nvidia's leader. In 2024, around the time the two of them were photographed together at a bar in Taipei, her company, Megaspeed, began a multibillion-dollar purchase of advanced A.I. microchips.
To many in the industry, the well-funded push by Megaspeed into A.I. appeared to come out of nowhere. Ms. Huang was connected to a network of companies and investors clustered around Shanghai and Zhejiang province that had used their ties to local officials in Shanghai to push aggressively from mobile video games into data centers, which provide the computing power behind artificial intelligence. Megaspeed has been building data centers in Southeast Asia and then renting their computing power to Alibaba, the giant Chinese internet firm, giving China a backdoor way of getting access to advanced Nvidia chips. Nvidia is restricted by the United States from selling those chips directly to China. Beyond its local connections, the network also has a financial link to the Chinese military establishment, through an investment in a cybersecurity subsidiary of China Electronics Technology Group, one of the country's largest makers of military technology. Following the report, top Republican lawmakers have asked Jensen Huang to appear before Congress to answer questions. "Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the People's Republic of China's access to sensitive US technology and information," representatives John Moolenaar, Brian Mast, and Rick Crawford said. "The issue of PRC infiltration and access to cutting-edge US technology is core to the investigative work of our three committees this Congress. It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which US national security has been placed at risk," the lawmakers added.
[...] The New York Times reported last week that Mr. Huang was a target of a Chinese intelligence operation, and that U.S. intelligence agencies were conducting electronic surveillance of Ms. Huang, a Chinese citizen, for at least a year. The Times reported that Mr. Trump had been briefed last year about Mr. Huang's relationship with her, but chose not to do anything about it. Ms. Huang speaks English well and has relationships with executives at the highest levels of the A.I. chip industry, including Mr. Huang and the leaders of Gigabyte, one of the top assemblers of Nvidia supercomputers, said people who have met her. She has attended industry conferences and private executive dinners. It is unclear when Ms. Huang first met Nvidia's leader. In 2024, around the time the two of them were photographed together at a bar in Taipei, her company, Megaspeed, began a multibillion-dollar purchase of advanced A.I. microchips.
To many in the industry, the well-funded push by Megaspeed into A.I. appeared to come out of nowhere. Ms. Huang was connected to a network of companies and investors clustered around Shanghai and Zhejiang province that had used their ties to local officials in Shanghai to push aggressively from mobile video games into data centers, which provide the computing power behind artificial intelligence. Megaspeed has been building data centers in Southeast Asia and then renting their computing power to Alibaba, the giant Chinese internet firm, giving China a backdoor way of getting access to advanced Nvidia chips. Nvidia is restricted by the United States from selling those chips directly to China. Beyond its local connections, the network also has a financial link to the Chinese military establishment, through an investment in a cybersecurity subsidiary of China Electronics Technology Group, one of the country's largest makers of military technology. Following the report, top Republican lawmakers have asked Jensen Huang to appear before Congress to answer questions. "Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the People's Republic of China's access to sensitive US technology and information," representatives John Moolenaar, Brian Mast, and Rick Crawford said. "The issue of PRC infiltration and access to cutting-edge US technology is core to the investigative work of our three committees this Congress. It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which US national security has been placed at risk," the lawmakers added.
Businesswoman is doing a lot of work there (Score:4, Funny)
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Also, nitpick, but didn't Pussy Galore work as a personal pilot for Auric Goldfinger? In this context, there are *sooo* many more outrageously dated quips to be had with that combo, I think. Have at it
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Well it *is* the oldest profession of them all, and a honeytrap is one of the oldest tricks in the espionage game too,
Reminds me of the blackmail attempt the KGB made on Sukarno (Indonesia's first president after independence). And then the Americans tried the same thing, thinking that the outrage of the Muslim majority population would get him unseated. Reaction back home was more like, "What a stud!" Conclusion: We shouldn't be filtering our political and business leadership through the Bohemian Grove.
while we were worried about the AI bubble (Score:2)
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Melania Distraction Tactics (Score:1)
Team TrumpRoach says: "Hey! Look Over Here!!"
Sounds like nothing special (Score:2)
Spies will spy. Is this just more "China baaaaad" drivel?
Not quite "nothing" (Score:2)
"Mr. Trump had been briefed last year about Mr. Huang's relationship with her, but chose not to do anything about it"
Jensen Huang traveled with Trump on Air Force One as part of a tech delegation to China with Musk and Tim Cook at a time TRUMP KNEW that Jensen Huang may could have been compromised.
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Why would Trump care? Unless he could get something out of it, and perhaps he did.
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"Indeed, Chinese babes are historically known for being as evil as they are beautiful..."
Haven't hit puberty, huh?
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I have a few decades of history behind me, and didn't know this. Citations, please.
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Indeed, Chinese babes are historically known for being as evil as they are beautiful,
Evil from who's point of view? They are certainly hated by the Agony Sisters Neighborhood Quilting Club, due to their better skills at maneuvering the womens' social order. But if you are looking for a mate, that's actually a good thing.
Whew! (Score:2)
Jensen Huang is Jen-Hsun's better-known body double. Sure dodged a bullet there eh?