Nvidia scandal: Alice Huang ties to Huawei exposed as third mistress emerges

New revelations further complicate the scandal that has shaken Nvidia and led to the departure of its decades-long strongman, Jensen Huang.
Alice Huang, the woman at the center of suspicions regarding ties to Chinese intelligence services who maintained a romantic relationship with the former CEO, now appears to have business connections with companies that supplied computing power to Huawei, one of Nvidia's biggest competitors in the artificial intelligence chip market.
At the same time, a third mistress has also been revealed, who likewise works at Nvidia...

Alice Huang's "side dealings" with Nvidia's biggest Chinese competitor

Alice Huang's connection to Huawei was first identified by analysts at the private intelligence firm Tesari, which shared its findings exclusively with CNBC. Tesari, which uses artificial intelligence to gather intelligence and specializes in national security investigations worldwide, provides intelligence collection and analysis services to private corporations and the US government.
This previously unknown connection could raise questions about Alice Huang's intentions and conduct within the context of her relationship with the CEO, as well as whether Jensen Huang knew that his romantic partner maintained close ties with his competition. Jensen Huang has admitted to having an extramarital affair, though the exact timeframe during which he was involved with Alice Huang remains unknown.
The mysterious case of Alice Huang involves a complex web of interconnected companies and transactions, revealing her link to businesses that ultimately supplied computing power to Huawei in China.
Huawei is known as one of the "state-backed champions" of the Chinese government in the technology and telecommunications sectors. This means it receives massive financial backing from Beijing so it can undercut prices and displace international competitors. It is considered a core component of the Chinese government's push for global technological dominance and maintains close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Companies linked to Alice Huang were allegedly involved in supplying computing power to Huawei through Nvidia infrastructure, according to documents reviewed by CNBC. This occurred around the same period when Alice Huang and Jensen Huang made their first public appearance together, in December 2023.
In 2024, Nvidia had designated Huawei as a major competitor, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence chips, including graphics processing units (GPUs), central processing units (CPUs), and networking chips.
"This activity, uncovered through the analysis of Alice's network, warrants a national security investigation and action to prevent the illegal proliferation of technology," stated Brian Andersen, Tesari's Vice President for National Security Applications and a former supervisory special agent with Homeland Security Investigations.
As Andersen explained, if the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security and Homeland Security Investigations uncover evidence that someone transferred "controlled equipment" to Huawei without the required license, potential charges could include export control violations, conspiracy, and smuggling.

The trajectory of Alice Huang

According to Chinese corporate records and media reports compiled by Tesari and provided to CNBC, Alice Huang, whose Chinese name is Huang Le and who, according to documents from that period, was based in Hong Kong, sold a cloud business she owned called Osmanthus in 2019 to a Chinese video game company named 7Road.
A subsidiary of 7Road, based in Singapore, was spun off in 2023 and transformed into the company Megaspeed. Megaspeed subsequently evolved into a major customer of Nvidia, helping facilitate shipments of Nvidia chips to Chinese companies worth at least 7.5 billion dollars, as The Information reported on Tuesday.
As early as 2016, Alice Huang had also become co-owner of a financial firm named Shanghai Hexi, which invests heavily in technology and data centers.
In 2021, Hexi in turn acquired a 27% stake in a company named Shanghai Century Longteng, which operates in data center development. Hexi retained that specific stake until 2024. That company held a majority 50.1% stake in a data center facility in mainland China named Shenzhen Yifeng Technology Co. Ltd. The primary client of that specific data center was Huawei Cloud, a subsidiary of Huawei Technologies headquartered in Shenzhen, China.
Furthermore, Alice Huang's firm Hexi had guaranteed the loans required to finance the data center in Shenzhen that partnered with Huawei.
It is unclear whether the data center in Shenzhen managed to procure Nvidia GPUs. However, the company holding the majority stake in it began purchasing those specific chips in 2023. That company is named Zhejiang Century Huatong Group and is a business partner of Alice Huang's Hexi through their joint ownership in Century Longteng. This means Alice Huang was co-owner of a data center that supplied computing power to Huawei. And this was taking place around the exact same period when her first known public appearances alongside Jensen Huang were recorded.
This raises the question of why Huawei, which has access to Chinese-made chips, would need to lease computing power from an external company.
Hexi exited its stake in the data center development company in 2024. However, individuals belonging to Alice Huang's business network remain connected to the Shenzhen data center. Her husband, Kang Wei, is a longtime business partner of hers and the founder of Hexi, where Alice Huang previously held an executive role.
In 2022, Kang also assumed an executive position at Century Longteng, which holds the majority stake in the Shenzhen facility. At the same time, he attended the signing ceremony for the company's agreement with Huawei.

A third mistress also revealed

Meanwhile, Reuters revealed that Jensen Huang also had a romantic relationship with a second Nvidia employee. This marks his third extramarital affair, following Alice Huang and Kimberly Powell.
Jensen Huang admitted to having an extramarital affair in a statement on November 8, following reports regarding his relationship with Alice Huang, without, however, mentioning her by name.

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