Despite Denial, Trump Was Told on Trip to China About Spying on Nvidia Leader

 

Despite Denial, Trump Was Told on Trip to China About Spying on Nvidia Leader

 

Before Jensen Huang boarded Air Force One en route to Beijing, the president was reminded of intelligence showing that he was in a relationship with a woman believed to be a Chinese spy.

 

Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive, during President Trump’s state visit to Beijing in May. He was not included initially, but joined at the last minute at Mr. Trump’s invitation.Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times

 

By Maggie HabermanJonathan SwanJulian E. BarnesAna Swanson and Tripp Mickle

Nov. 10, 2026

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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/10/us/politics/trump-china-trip-nvidia.html

 

President Trump was told aboard Air Force One in May en route to China that the United States had obtained sensitive intelligence showing that Nvidia’s chief executive was in a relationship with a woman believed to be a Chinese spy, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The message was delivered by Marco Rubio, his secretary of state and national security adviser, shortly before the Nvidia leader, Jensen Huang, joined the presidential trip to Beijing at Mr. Trump’s invitation. It marked at least the second time in seven months that the president had been told of intelligence about Mr. Huang’s involvement with the woman.

The existence of the previously unreported update given to Mr. Trump contradicts the president’s assertion on Monday that he had not known at the time of the trip about Mr. Huang’s relationship with the woman, who U.S. officials had concluded was working for China’s Ministry of State Security.

“No, I didn’t hear about it then,” Mr. Trump said when asked at a news conference whether he knew about Mr. Huang’s ties to the woman when he headed to a summit meeting with Xi Jinping, China’s leader.

The disclosures about the relationship have rocked the company and driven down its stock price. They have focused new attention on the intensity of the competition between China and the United States for supremacy in artificial intelligence — a rivalry in which Nvidia’s advanced chips are integral to the current American advantage. And they have put a new spotlight on Mr. Huang’s influence with Mr. Trump and the administration on A.I. policy and issues affecting Nvidia.

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Mr. Huang deplaning from Air Force One along with Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, as Mr. Trump arrived in Beijing in May. Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Ever since American officials first warned him last year that a woman having an affair with Mr. Huang was believed to be working for Chinese intelligence, Mr. Trump has played down or dismissed the concerns. When first briefed on the issue late last fall, Mr. Trump chose to take no action, The New York Times reported last month.

When pressed on Monday about whether he had received a briefing on the issue last year, Mr. Trump, who has embraced Nvidia as key to U.S. technology competitiveness and a driver of the stock market’s rise over the past several years, said he would have to check.

“I’d certainly check with the intelligence people,” he said. “They could have been mentioned. Certainly, it didn’t make much of an impact on me.”

Mr. Trump is scheduled to visit China again next week. He initially indicated he might invite Mr. Huang again, but on Monday he said the Nvidia executive will not accompany him on the trip.

But the president continued to vigorously defend Mr. Huang, saying he had spoken to him and asked him if he knew that the woman, known as Alice Huang, was a spy. Mr. Huang said he did not, Mr. Trump said. The president said he did not plan to raise the matter with Mr. Xi when he meets the Chinese leader next week.

“I just know Jensen very well,” Mr. Trump said on Monday. “I just think he’s a very honorable man.”

Mr. Trump’s previous trip to China, in May, has come under new scrutiny since the disclosures about the Nvidia leader’s relationship with Ms. Huang, who had been an executive at a Singapore-based company called Megaspeed that purchases advanced Nvidia chips. The United States began restricting sales of advanced chips directly to China in late 2022, but it still allows Chinese companies to rent that computing power at data centers in Southeast Asia, like the ones Megaspeed operates.

In the weeks before the trip, Mr. Rubio had overseen the drafting of a memo about Mr. Huang, which was circulated to a small number of top administration officials. It was not intended for Mr. Trump, according to one person with knowledge of the matter, and it was not shown to him aboard Air Force One.

Mr. Rubio during a state banquet in Beijing in May. When he learned that Mr. Huang would be joining the trip, he briefed President Trump about the intelligence findings about him, but Mr. Trump still allowed Mr. Huang to come aboard. Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Mr. Huang, among the most pivotal figures in A.I., was initially left off the invitation list of business and tech leaders traveling to China in May, a fact that generated headlines before Mr. Trump departed the United States. With little warning, Mr. Trump invited Mr. Huang to meet up with Air Force One during a refueling stop in Alaska. Mr. Rubio was among more than a dozen administration officials on Air Force One for the trip.

A U.S. government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, confirmed that when Mr. Rubio learned that Mr. Huang would be joining the trip in Alaska, he “briefed the president on the issue.”

Mr. Trump was not particularly moved by what he heard from his national security adviser, and continued with the plan to pick up Mr. Huang, the people with knowledge of the events said.

Mr. Huang, once aboard Air Force One, saw the president “very briefly” but “remained in the separate part of the plane for almost all of the trip,” the official said.

The State Department declined to comment. Asked to comment, the White House press office declined to do so on the record. Instead, the office emailed a statement on background that pointed to Mr. Trump’s remarks from Monday. The email disputed the reporting for this article, without elaborating.

After The Times reported last month that U.S. officials had determined that Ms. Huang was a Chinese intelligence asset and that she was in a relationship with Mr. Huang, Nvidia executives and Mr. Huang both insisted that the relationship was a routine engagement with a customer. On Sunday, Mr. Huang admitted to a romantic relationship with Ms. Huang. Soon after, Nvidia announced that the company would conduct an independent investigation.

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Mr. Trump with President Xi Jinping of China outside the Temple of Heaven during the state visit in May. Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Mr. Huang has long favored a more expansive policy on chip sales, well before Mr. Trump returned to the White House in 2025. His defenders have often noted that he has publicly said the U.S. must lead China in the A.I. race. Mr. Trump has largely sided with Mr. Huang and other technology executives and investors, amid a growing divide about the global risks of A.I.

Earlier this year, at an investor conference, Mr. Huang reiterated that China should not be able to access Nvidia’s top-tier products, and that the United States should have “the first, the most and the best.” But, he added, “Simultaneously, all American companies should compete globally.”

It was unclear whether the Rubio memo from last spring played a role in Mr. Huang’s having been excluded from the initial invitation list for the subsequent China visit.

At the time, the president was considering opening sales to China of Nvidia’s most advanced Blackwell chip. Mr. Huang, along with some other major tech leaders, has supported such a move, although many of Mr. Trump’s advisers opposed it. The administration has not approved the sale of Blackwell chips to China, although the U.S. government ultimately permitted the sale of less advanced H200 chips to approved purchasers.

Luke Broadwater contributed reporting.

Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.

Jonathan Swan is a White House reporter for The Times, covering the administration of Donald J. Trump. Contact him securely on Signal: @jonathan.941

Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades.

Ana Swanson covers trade and international economics for The Times and is based in Washington. She has been a journalist for more than a decade.

Tripp Mickle reports for The Times on some of the world’s biggest tech companies, including Nvidia, Google and Apple. He also writes about tech industry trends like layoffs and artificial intelligence.