Allegations That Alice Hwang Smuggled AI Chips Worth 10 Trillion Won

Alice Hwang, who has been identified as the mistress of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, is suspected of involvement in the illicit re-export of roughly 240,000 of Nvidia's high-performance AI chips (worth about 10 trillion won) to China through Mega Speed, the Singapore-based company where she served as an executive, and its Malaysian subsidiary. Hwang is reported to have built the semiconductor re-export network through these companies in coordination with a Chinese firm founded by her younger sister, and it is known that the shipments included the H100 chip, which is banned from export to China.

The investigation gained momentum after the U.S. Department of Commerce detected Mega Speed's large-scale semiconductor orders. The Commerce Department is reported to have found unopened Nvidia equipment at a data center. According to Reuters, the U.S. Commerce Department approved purchases of Nvidia H200 chips by around 10 Chinese companies on May 14.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday, local time, that both the Chinese regime and the United States would act with their own interests as the top priority, and that he would take all necessary measures.

Foreign media reported that Mega Speed's assets surged more than 90-fold during the year Hwang served as an executive. Jensen Huang, who admitted to the affair, reportedly apologized while presiding over an executive meeting as usual on the day the story was published, but employees could not hide their disappointment.