The Nvidia Spy Case Is About Much More Than Sex

The world is understandably focused on the seamy side of the Jensen Huang spy story. The United States government has assessed that the Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang was working for Chinese intelligence services as she carried on a romantic relationship with Mr. Huang, the Nvidia chief executive, who is no relation. The success of this alleged “honey pot” operation, targeting one of the most powerful and important leaders in the race for artificial intelligence technology, would be a coup of the highest order for any intelligence service.

Yet to understand why the Huang affair has already been so damaging, it helps to see the larger picture of Beijing’s intelligence efforts against the United States, and where Ms. Huang may fit into them. Her value as an asset for the Chinese government (which has denied the allegations) was not just as a sexual partner for Mr. Huang, but as a business partner.

In its long-term competition for global economic primacy with the United States, China is seeking to steal everything it can from us. Over the past few years, China’s progress in this effort is like nothing we have ever witnessed. The U.S. economic loss from China’s theft of intellectual property and trade secrets is estimated to run between $300 billion and $600 billion per year — or as much as $6,000 for a family of four after taxes. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called what is happening the largest theft of intellectual property in the history of the world.

One big reason for China’s success is its use of what counterespionage officials call “nontraditional” intelligence collectors. These are not official spies or trained intelligence professionals. They are engineers, businesspeople, academics and professionals, often doing legitimate work and research for investment firms, academic partners and joint ventures. Sometimes they knowingly work for the Chinese government; other times they are unwitting agents doing the work of intelligence collection without knowing it.

Ms. Huang may be the most infamous nontraditional collector to date. As head of the Singapore-based data center firm Megaspeed, she is said to have facilitated the purchase of $4.8 billion in A.I. chips from Nvidia over the past two years; U.S. authorities have investigated whether those chips made their way to China in violation of American prohibitions on such transfers.

It’s not just chips that China is after. Beijing’s unofficial spies have ranged through every corner of American society. Of course, they have targeted government officials: In 2024, federal prosecutors accused a former aide to the New York governors Kathy Hochul and Andrew Cuomo of acting as an undisclosed agent of influence in Albany for China. Former Representative Eric Swalwell carried on a relationship with a suspected Chinese spy from 2012 to 2015.

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