Donald Trump has said the FBI is investigating the affair between the boss of Nvidia and an alleged Chinese spy.
The US President said he spoke with chief executive Jensen Huang on Monday following reports that the US believed he had been targeted in a Chinese espionage campaign.
“I asked him that question, ‘Did you have any idea she was a spy?’ He said ‘I had no idea she was a spy’ and I really believe him,” Trump told reporters.
China has rejected claims that Huang was targeted, with its foreign ministry saying the allegations were “entirely groundless, speculative and intended to smear and malign China”.
Nvidia, who has commissioned an independent investigation into the affair involving Alice Huang, alleged to be a Chinese spy, said it had no reason to believe the company’s secrets or national security were compromised.
But later on Monday, Trump said the FBI was now looking into the issue, but did not elaborate on the probe or when it was launched. The BBC has contacted the FBI.
US intelligence officials believe Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, was a spy for Beijing, according to a New York Times report.
The report said Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a memo to top officials in Washington last spring warning that the Nvidia boss was in a close relationship with a Chinese spy.
Alice Huang was managing director of Singaporean company Megaspeed, which has had dealings with Nvidia, the company at the centre at the development of AI worldwide through its microchips.
The American firm run, co-founded by Huang, is also a major focus in the AI rivalry between the US and China, with officials treating the company’s exports to Beijing as a matter of national security.
Trump, at a Monday afternoon news conference, said he thought Huang was an “honorable guy and I feel very confident that he will be in good shape”.
“I did speak to him today just to see if he’s feeling alright, how you doing, and I asked him about that and he said he absolutely had no idea that the person in question was a spy,” the president said.
Trump added he was “sure” China president Xi Jinping would “ask me about it” when they next met.
Huang has admitted he was “unfaithful” to his wife and apologised for hurting her and their children.
He said on Monday he was “committed to protecting Nvidia and supporting America’s national security” and would cooperate with the investigation the company had launched.
Huang has also been requested to appear for a joint closed-door briefing for several Congressional committees next week.
In the letter, the chairmen of the committees said they were seeking a briefing “on Nvidia’s security protocols against foreign adversary espionage and your interactions with a publicly reported People’s Republic of China (PRC) intelligence asset: Megaspeed executive Alice Huang”.
It’s unclear whether Huang will appear. The BBC has contacted Nvidia and the committees.