Nvidia's Jensen Huang Lobbied Trump on China Chip Sales, Report Says

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang personally lobbied President Donald Trump to ease restrictions on AI chip sales to China, according to a report that also links him to a businesswoman whose company is under scrutiny in the United States, Reuters and other outlets reported this week.

The report says Huang attended a high-priced dinner at Mar-a-Lago in April 2025 and made a sizable donation to a presidential building project, and that there were at least three documented meetings between Huang and Trump after which the administration adjusted policy in ways that made it easier for Nvidia to ship advanced chips to China. Huang, 63, has publicly opposed export limits since the Biden administration introduced them in 2022, arguing that restricting sales harms American firms while doing little to slow China's progress.

The woman identified in the report, Alice Huang, is an executive at Singapore-based AI computing firm Megaspeed, which has purchased billions of dollars of Nvidia chips for data centers in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The report alleges she met Jensen Huang in early 2024 and that the two were seen together at public events, including a dinner during a major Taiwan technology expo in May 2025. There is no suggestion that Jensen Huang broke any law, and the two are not related.

Megaspeed, which is backed by Chinese tech giant Alibaba, is reportedly under US investigation over allegations that chips were smuggled to China, including an audit that found tens of thousands of chips apparently unaccounted for. The report says Nvidia intervened in that probe. Megaspeed has denied wrongdoing, and the Chinese government has rejected allegations of a spy scheme. Nvidia has not confirmed the details of the report.

The claims come as Washington debates how tightly to control exports of the most advanced AI semiconductors, a debate with major stakes for Nvidia's revenue and for the broader US-China technology rivalry. Any perception that commercial lobbying shaped export policy is likely to intensify scrutiny from lawmakers who favor strict controls, while Nvidia and other chipmakers continue to argue that curbs hurt American competitiveness.

Neither Nvidia nor the White House has issued a detailed response to the report, and the allegations about the relationship remain unverified. Analysts said the episode could add pressure on regulators to tighten oversight of chip distribution through third-party data center operators in Asia and the Middle East, a channel that has grown quickly as demand for AI computing power has surged.