The mysterious rise of alleged Chinese spy Alice Huang – as her past vanishes | Latest Tech News
Traces of alleged spy Alice Huang’s past are vanishing from China’s web — but a few particulars of her unimaginable rise from provincial city schoolgirl to Nvidia boss Jensen Huang’s alleged mistress have emerged.
Huang, 49, was remembered as a tall, soft-spoken girl with polished English and a present for working a room, by somebody who met her at an event in Beijing about three years in the past.
“She was easygoing and very polite,” the source told the Post.
“Her English was very good, and [she] spoke quite softly. She was very sociable.”
Alice Huang, pictured with Nvidia boss Jensen Huang in a picture reportedly from her WeChat account, rose from a factory-town faculty in Hunan to the top of the chip world. Obtained by NY Post
Sources from her home province of Hunan told the Post Huang was born in 1977, educated at a nursing faculty, labored at Hunan TV and state broadcaster CCTV, but mysteriously never held a employees job, and that she had been married in Hunan before she met Kang Wei, the stock analyst and investor who reportedly launched her to Jensen Huang.
Huang, also recognized by her Chinese title Huang Le, is accused by US intelligence of being recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security to get close to the Nvidia chief, the Post reported. Beijing has denied the allegations and she has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
A former schoolmate claimed Huang was “good at drinking,” sociable and had a high EQ — also recognized as emotional intelligence — in a credible account which has been circulated in the Chinese group.
Alice Huang (left) with a pal, in a picture reportedly shared by outdated mates online. A schoolmate recalled her as “good at drinking” and sociable. Obtained by NY Post
Alice Huang and Nvidia boss Jensen Huang share a drink in an undated picture. A former schoolmate remembered her as “good at drinking.” Obtained by NY Post
A WeChat group of her former junior high classmates was also mysteriously closed, according to Chinese sources.
Huang’s own WeChat account, where she posted pictures with the Nvidia boss, has been disabled, the Financial Times reported. And China’s top AI chatbot, DeepSeek, refuses to reply questions about her.
Huang, also recognized by her Chinese title Huang Le, attended Jiangnan Middle School in Nanzhushan, a city in town of Xiangtan, the Hunan source told the Post. It was once the varsity for the kids of staff at the Jiangnan Machinery Factory.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, left, his spouse Lori Huang and former Apple CEO Tim Cook speak during a state dinner at the White House on Sept. 24, 2024, about six weeks before Huang admitted to workers that he had been untrue to her. Getty Images
A commencement picture circulating among Chinese contacts, attributed to a former classmate, is said to show Huang among the scholars of Class 9305.
From there, she went to a secondary vocational nursing faculty, according to the source— a long manner from the TV studios, investment corporations and tech titans that would fill her later résumé.
The source believed she later studied for a bachelor’s degree at Hunan Normal University, but couldn’t affirm if she completed it.
A commencement picture from 1993 circulating among Chinese contacts is said to show Alice Huang, also recognized as Huang Le, with Class 9305 at Jiangnan Middle School in Xiangtan, Hunan, once the varsity for the kids of local manufacturing unit staff. Obtained by NY Post
She soon traded nursing scrubs for the TV studio, working informally at Hunan TV and CCTV, the source said.
She later moved into finance, changing into a senior govt and equity accomplice at Shanghai Hexi Investment, which is where she is believed to have met Kang.
Huang and Kang Wei introduced themselves as a married couple, according to a source who met her in individual.
“They called each other husband and wife, but whether they were legally married or not, I can’t verify,” they said.
Photos said to show Alice Huang (left, top; proper, backside) during her time in Hong Kong, where she is believed to have taken a media management grasp’s course at Hong Kong Baptist University about twenty years in the past. Obtained by NY Post
Kang allegedly knew Nvidia boss Jensen Huang through business they did together in the 2010s. Kang was then shopping for Chinese video sport corporations — Nvidia’s main chip business before the AI increase — and launched Huang to him, according to The Information.
That would imply she had recognized the Nvidia boss for years before current reviews that claimed she met him while shopping for AI chips in 2024.
By 2023, Huang had a senior position at Megaspeed, a Singapore firm that went on to buy billions of {dollars} of Nvidia chips for data facilities in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Megaspeed has denied allegations it diverted restricted chips to China, but investigations into them doing so have been launched in the US and Singapore.
Photos Huang shared on WeChat show dinners, drinks and her posing beside some of the most highly effective males in tech.
At a Taipei whiskey bar in 2024, she allegedly fired off a textual content — and moments later Jensen confirmed up, socialized briefly then left alone, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Alice Huang, third from proper, and Kang Wei, fourth from proper, the investor she called her husband and who reportedly launched her to Nvidia boss Jensen Huang, tour an automotive tech company with executives. China Automotive Innovation
If, and when, she grew to become half of an intelligence operation are key questions investigators need to discover out.
Her personal WeChat provides a clue to her rampant ambition. It reads “Stay foolish, stay hungry” —well-known advice attributed to Steve Jobs, but flipped in its order.
That starvation is strictly what Beijing seems for when it recruits people for intelligence operations.
“She’s obviously a tenacious worker, a tenacious businesswoman … It appears that she molded herself into being a success,” Nicholas Eftimiades, a retired senior intelligence officer and writer of the e-book “Chinese Espionage: Operations and Tactics” told the Post.
“In China, given the CCP’s control over society, if you want to be successful at that level, you’re probably going to play nicely with the CCP,” he added.
Eftimiades has constructed a database of more than 1,000 Chinese espionage instances. Unlike the CIA or Britain’s MI6, he said, China’s Ministry of State Security takes a “whole of society” strategy, noting a 2017 law requiring Chinese residents to help intelligence work.
The lure could be money, nationalism, personal relationships or, in rarer instances, coercion. But if Huang was compromised, he believes it will be associated to business.
“It’s a natural movement for her to be cooperating with the CCP,” Eftimiades said. “And in this case, given her access to Jensen Huang, I’m sure they would have approached her and said, ‘OK, we could really use your help.’”
Alice Huang poses with Jensen Huang, holding a whisky bottle inscribed “To Alice, the speech winner of GTC Taipei Computex.” A schoolmate recalled she was “good at drinking.” Obtained by NY Post
“Stay hungry, stay foolish”: the motto on Alice Huang’s WeChat account, which has since reportedly been disabled. Obtained by NY Post
Not every spy begins out as one, Peter Mattis, a former CIA counterintelligence analyst and president of the Jamestown Foundation, famous to the Post this week. Foreign governments often search to exploit relationships that already exist.
“If you trust someone, you talk to them about things that you might not talk about with other people,” Mattis said.
Eftimiades doesn’t see Huang as a educated operative. “Spies don’t do billion-dollar deals,” he said. “That’s a person who’s a cooperating asset.”
Nor does he buy the speculation that she was merely a chip smuggler.
Nicholas Eftimiades, a retired senior intelligence officer, said Huang seems to be “a cooperating asset” fairly than a educated spy. Courtesy of Nicholas Eftimiades
Alice Huang, proper, with another girl in a picture circulating in Chinese online communities, where hometown contacts have been piecing together her past. Obtained by NY Post
Eftimiades’ e-book “Chinese Espionage: Operations and Tactics” describes how China’s spy providers faucet businesspeople, college students and students as half of a “whole of society” strategy. Courtesy of Nicholas Eftimiades
“If it’s things like technology or smuggling, you don’t go to the CEO,” he said. “I think what she was looking for is policy … how [Nvidia’s] board members feel, are they in favor of selling to China.”
“Intelligence work is like a cancer,” he added.
“Once you get one, then you start going out and saying, ‘OK, who can we target?’”
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