Trump won't raise Nvidia, Huang spy issue during China trip, officials say

Trump trip and Nvidia allegations

Senior U.S. officials said President Donald Trump does not plan to raise the issue of a suspected Chinese spy having an affair with former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during his upcoming trip to China, CNBC reported.

Officials said Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, will accompany Trump on the trip to Shenzhen, China, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit on Nov. 18 and 19. The White House said Trump plans to have a three-way summit there with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Jensen Huang’s relationship with the suspected spy, Alice Huang, who is not related to him, has raised concerns that a Singapore-based company where she was an executive diverted restricted Nvidia chips to China. Huang resigned this week as Nvidia’s CEO after damning reports that he had an affair with Alice Huang, who was an executive of Megaspeed, a cloud-computing company that is being eyed for possible facilitation of sending billions of dollars worth of Nvidia chips in violation of U.S. restrictions on those chips.

China has called the allegations against Alice Huang baseless.

Officials’ statements

“The situation with Nvidia should not really have any bearing on the trip,” an official said on the press call, speaking on the condition that they not be identified.

“In all of our discussions and negotiations with the Chinese, we do not negotiate American export controls ... and we don’t expect it to figure at all in any of our conversations with the Chinese while we’re there.”

Asked if Trump would raise the allegations against Alice Huang to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the official said, “The focus of a meeting with President Xi, at least on the economic side, is going to be about implementation of the trade agreement.”

“When it comes to some of these national security matters and examinations and investigations that are going on in the U.S., [that is] probably not something that we’re going to read the Chinese in on at this moment,” the official said.

Another official said, “I don’t expect the president to raise it — the Alice Huang issue.”

FAA ground stop

The FAA announced a nationwide ground stop at 4 p.m. Friday due to “extraordinary circumstances” and did not immediately link the travel disturbance to the new system. A new AI-supported air traffic system known as Strategic Management of Airspace or “SMART” was expanded to 22 air route traffic control centers across the country Tuesday, according to the Washington Times. The stoppage was potentially caused by an upgrade to new software, a source told The New York Post.

Sources

• cnbc.com: Trump won't raise Nvidia, Huang spy issue during China trip
• nypost.com: FAA launched new AI ‘SMART’ tool to all air route traffic control centers just days before nationwide ground stop

This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.