A fresh controversy has erupted surrounding Alice Huang, who recently made headlines over her romantic relationship with former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. It has now been revealed that Alice Huang, who is currently under the radar of United States authorities, possesses deep business connections linked to Chinese technology giant Huawei. Suspicions are mounting that Alice Huang may have engaged in espionage for China, turning this personal and corporate affair into a massive international security concern.
CNBC Investigation and the Huawei Connection
According to an investigative report by CNBC, Alice's business ties trace directly back to a data center that provided critical services to China's tech behemoth Huawei. Notably, Huawei is widely recognized globally as Nvidia's biggest and most formidable competitor. This startling revelation has sent shockwaves through American regulatory and intelligence agencies, prompting them to launch a thorough investigation into the entire network.
Alice Huang's Complex Chinese Network
Citing an investigation by private intelligence firm Tesari, CNBC reported that Alice Huang's commercial network was intricately connected to several Chinese companies. This network reportedly traces back to a data center located in Shenzhen, China, whose primary clients included Huawei Cloud. These findings have raised intense questions regarding whether Alice's business operations simultaneously intersected with Nvidia's advanced computing technology on one hand and a network serving Huawei on the other. While the exact timeline of when Jensen Huang and Alice's relationship began remains unclear, the pair was first publicly spotted together in December 2023.
How Alice Huang's Business Linked to Huawei
According to Chinese corporate records and media reports, Alice Huang sold her cloud computing business named Osmanthus to Chinese gaming company 7Road back in 2019. Later, in 2023, a Singapore-based subsidiary of 7Road spun off to become Megaspeed. Reports indicate that Megaspeed subsequently emerged as one of Nvidia's major corporate clients. 5 billion dollars worth of Nvidia chips to various Chinese firms.
Alice Huang's second significant business connection was tied to a financial firm named Shanghai Hexi, while she served as a co-owner of this company starting in 2016. The firm actively invested in businesses related to technology and data center operations.
Shenzhen Data Center and Hexi's Stake
In 2021, Hexi acquired a 27 percent stake in Shanghai Century Longteng, a company specializing in data center construction. This ownership stake remained in its possession through 2024.1 percent majority stake in Shenzhen Yifeng Technology, a Shenzhen-based company. It was precisely this company's data center that provided operational services to Huawei Cloud. Also, Hexi provided financial guarantees for loans taken out to construct this very data center. Consequently, Alice Huang's commercial network ultimately leads directly to an entity holding ownership in a data center providing computing services to Huawei.
While it remains unconfirmed whether Nvidia's GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) were directly utilized within this Shenzhen data center, its largest shareholder, Zhejiang Century Huatong Group, began purchasing Nvidia chips starting in 2023. This corporate entity also maintained active business relations with Hexi.
United States Scrutiny Over Chinese Connections
S. Homeland Security Investigations, asserted that American authorities must rigorously investigate these revelations. According to him, this case could serve as a fundamental baseline for inquiries related to national security and the prevention of unauthorized misuse of sensitive technologies.
If investigations legally establish that restricted technological equipment was supplied to Huawei without proper authorization, it could lead to grave charges of export control violations, conspiracy, and illicit smuggling. Tesari analysts also harbor suspicions that the intricate ownership patterns and corporate structures among these companies might have been deliberately orchestrated to conceal their interconnections.