Trump says US looking ‘closely’ at report Nvidia CEO is target of China spy plot

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump voiced on Saturday (Oct 31) his support for the “brilliant” head of US chip giant Nvidia, Jensen Huang after a report that he was targeted by a Chinese spy plot.

Trump said the US was looking “very closely” at the issue.

The New York Times reported on Oct 29 that US intelligence officials concluded that a Chinese executive linked to a Singapore-based data centre company, who had interacted with Huang, had been funnelling information to Beijing.

China has dismissed the report as “groundless speculation”.

“I have a lot of respect for Jensen. I didn’t know about the specific thing, but I hope he’s going to be OK. He’s a great, brilliant person, and we want to protect our brilliant people,” Trump told reporters at his Florida residence.

“We’re going to check it out very closely,” he added.

Asked if he would retain Huang as an advisor, he said: “I would like to say yes. I mean, unless we find out something to the contrary, I’ve always found Jensen Huang to be very above board.”

“But you know, you’re dealing in a very complex issue,” he added.

Huang has advised Trump on AI policy and was among tech CEOs who joined the US leader on his visit to Beijing in May to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Taiwan-born businessman has advocated for the use of his company’s chips in China, where Beijing has been accelerating development of its own semiconductors.