Few stories combine Silicon Valley, the White House and Beijing quite like this one. An Nvidia spokesperson pushed back Thursday on a New York Times report detailing how American intelligence agencies surveilled a person close to CEO Jensen Huang because they suspected she could be a Chinese intelligence asset.

What the Report Alleges

According to the Times report, which cited people briefed on intelligence surveillance, Alice Huang, who is linked to Singapore-based cloud company Megaspeed, developed a close relationship with Nvidia’s Jensen Huang. Intelligence agencies worried she was a spy helping the Chinese government gain information from Nvidia and its chief executive. They also fretted that Huang had access to President Donald Trump.

Nvidia’s Rebuttal

In a statement to CNBC, the Nvidia spokesperson said Megaspeed is simply another of the company’s regional cloud customers. Jensen Huang’s interactions with its officials are not unusual, the spokesperson said, because he speaks with thousands of customers every year. Customers, the spokesperson added, do not get access to Nvidia trade secrets or relevant national security information.

The Export Control Question

The report also alleged that Megaspeed was previously suspected of helping companies evade U.S. export controls on Nvidia’s AI chips, which are not allowed to be shipped to China. Nvidia said Megaspeed had already been investigated for that. “The diversion allegations against this regional cloud were thoroughly investigated and debunked last year,” the spokesperson said.

Was Nvidia Ever Warned?

Nvidia implied the U.S. government never briefed it on Alice Huang. “We’re confident that if the U.S. government believes that any person is a threat to American industry, it would let us know,” the spokesperson said.

Walking the Washington Tightrope

Nvidia has had to balance carefully in Washington, as its AI chips have become both a powerful tool for AI developers and a bargaining chip in economic competition with China. Politicians and analysts say the chips could be used to build Chinese military AI models, or commercial models that could eventually rival and surpass American technology.

Huang and Trump

As AI has grown in importance to the government, Huang has befriended Trump and given pro-American speeches about building U.S. AI infrastructure. He has appeared with Trump at state dinners, AI summits and international trips, while pushing for certain Nvidia chips to be cleared for shipment to China.

The China Chip Standoff

Earlier this year, the U.S. government cleared Nvidia’s H200 chip for shipment to China, but Chinese regulators blocked its import. The H200 is from Nvidia’s Hopper generation, not the faster Blackwell generation currently used by American AI developers.

Nvidia: Beijing Isn’t Shopping Through Regional Clouds

The spokesperson said the Chinese government is not looking for Nvidia products from regional clouds like Megaspeed. “Instead, the PRC government blocked U.S. AI chips, protecting its own industry and resulting in the largest write-offs in U.S. tech history,” the spokesperson said. Last year, Nvidia wrote off about $4.5 billion in Chinese-tuned AI chips.

With the company denying the allegations and the Times citing unnamed briefed sources, the dispute leaves open a pointed question about who the government was watching, and why.