The row threatens to overshadow next week’s expected Trump-Xi meeting, as Congress pushes for tougher limits on sales to Beijing.
China has warned the United States against tightening chip export controls, as a company founded by the woman at the centre of the Nvidia scandal reportedly obtained banned AI chips.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Shanghai Longteng Intelligent Computing, set up by Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data centre firm Megaspeed, ended up with servers containing Nvidia’s H800 chips, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing documents submitted to the Chinese government.
The servers were bought from Dell Technologies by Aperia Cloud Services, an official Nvidia partner in Singapore, according to an unnamed source. It is unclear how Shanghai Longteng acquired them or whether Alice Huang was involved. Washington banned H800 exports to China in 2023.
The report adds to pressure from US lawmakers calling for further limits on chip equipment sales to China after Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang resigned on Thursday. He admitted to extramarital affairs, including one reportedly with Alice Huang, who is no relation.
A US intelligence memo circulated this spring reportedly alleged she was an asset of China’s Ministry of State Security. Reports also suggest the Commerce Department under Howard Lutnick may have failed to act on suspicions that Megaspeed was rerouting restricted Nvidia technology to China.
“I’m in favour of limiting those exports,” House speaker Mike Johnson was quoted as saying, adding there was a “developing consensus in Congress”.
Beijing denies Alice Huang is a spy and has called the allegations a pretext for a “technological blockade”. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Friday that China opposed “the abuse of export control measures”.
Megaspeed said it was investigating whether it had complied with export controls, while Malaysia is probing one of its subsidiaries over the possible diversion of advanced AI chips.
The row comes ahead of an expected meeting next week between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at an APEC summit in Shenzhen, China.
