A private‑intelligence firm, Tesari, reported that companies connected to businesswoman Alice Huang (Chinese name Huang Lö) held stakes in Chinese data‑center ventures that provided capacity to Huawei at the same time she had both business and a personal relationship with Nvidia’s former CEO Jensen Huang. CNBC obtained and published documents underlying the finding.
Key corporate and ownership links
- Alice Huang became a co‑owner of Shanghai Hexi, a financial firm involved in technology sectors and data centers, in 2016.
- In 2021, Hexi acquired a 27 percent stake in Shanghai Century Longteng, a data‑center developer. Century Longteng was the majority owner of Shenzhen Yifeng Technology, which operated a data center in Shenzhen.
- One of the largest customers of the Shenzhen facility was Huawei Cloud, Huawei’s cloud unit. Hexi also provided guarantees for loans used to finance the facility.
- The reports do not conclusively show that the Shenzhen center directly received Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs), but the facility’s majority owner, Zhejiang Century Huatong Group, began purchasing those chips in 2023.
- Hexi exited the data‑center developer in 2024, yet Tesari’s documents indicate Huang’s network remained connected to the project: her husband and former business partner, Kang Vej, took a senior role at Century Longteng in 2022 and was present at the signing of the agreement with Huawei.
Additional business ties
- In 2019, Alice Huang sold a cloud venture called Osmanthus to Chinese game developer 7Road. A spin‑out from that company, Megaspeed (based in Singapore), split off in 2023 and later became an important Nvidia customer. Tesari’s materials say Megaspeed mediated at least $7.5 billion worth of Nvidia chips to Chinese companies.
Tesari’s investigation and national‑security implications
- Tesari, a private‑intelligence firm that uses artificial intelligence to map global corporate networks, says the examined corporate structure was built to be opaque and to obscure true relationships.
- Brian Andersen, Tesari’s vice president for national security and a former special agent with the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), told the report the disclosed activity could warrant immediate national‑security investigations to curb potential technology transfers.
- If U.S. authorities find evidence that restricted equipment was transferred to Huawei without authorization, individuals or entities involved could face charges related to export‑control violations, conspiracy or smuggling.
Timeline and public appearances
- Tesari’s documents indicate Huang’s interests were providing capacity to Huawei at the same time she was in a business and personal relationship with Jensen Huang. The two were first publicly seen together in December 2023.
Responses
- CNBC’s requests for comment were not answered by either Nvidia or Huawei. Jensen Huang and Alice Huang were not available for comment.
Why this matters
The ownership stakes, loan guarantees and customer relationships outlined in the report raise potential export‑control and national‑security concerns, particularly if chips or other restricted technologies were transferred without authorization. Tesari warns that the deliberately opaque corporate network complicates oversight and could prompt formal investigations.
Note: An AI assistant contributed to preparation of the reporting; the final content was edited and verified by a human journalist.
