Beijing rejects allegations of a spying operation targeting Nvidia CEO

China rejected on Friday reports that Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive, had been targeted by a Chinese espionage operation. Beijing described the revelations as “groundless speculation” and an attempt to “smear China.”

The reaction was voiced by Guo Jiakun, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, following the publication of an investigation by The New York Times. According to the American newspaper, United States intelligence services suspect a Chinese executive of Singapore-based company Megaspeed of having acted as an agent for Chinese intelligence services.

Megaspeed is suspected of having redirected advanced Nvidia chips for artificial intelligence to China. The investigation, cited by AFP, is based on anonymous sources close to the inquiry.

The NYT claims that Alice Huang, who is not related to Jensen Huang, had developed a close relationship with the Nvidia chief executive. The American company, however, rejected any suspicion, stating that Megaspeed is a regular regional client in the cloud services sector and that there is nothing unusual about the discussions between the two. Nvidia said that Jensen Huang meets annually with thousands of executives from its clients.