Washington — Trump Says Nvidia CEO Denied Woman Was Chinese Spy

President Trump said he spoke by phone with Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang on Monday, after Huang acknowledged an affair with a woman who was a customer of the AI chipmaker, and that Huang told him he did not know she was a Chinese spy, according to the Washington Post.

The episode has drawn in the world's most valuable chip company, its chief executive, the American president and the Chinese government inside a single week, though the public record so far consists of one presidential account and one Chinese government denial.

What did Trump say about Jensen Huang and the affair?

Trump told reporters he spoke to Huang on Monday after Huang admitted to having an affair with a woman described as a customer of Nvidia's, the Post reported. In Trump's telling, Huang said he did not know, at the time of the relationship, that the woman was allegedly working as a Chinese spy. The president's account is the only on-the-record description of the conversation currently available; neither Nvidia nor Huang has offered their own public version of what was said on the call, based on the reporting reviewed.

Who does Trump say the woman was?

The Post's reporting does not name the woman, her nationality, her employer, or the specifics of how intelligence agencies came to describe her as a Chinese spy. The available account is limited to Trump's characterization that Huang had a relationship with "one of his AI chipmaker's customers" and that the affair is now tied to espionage allegations the president relayed secondhand. Readers should treat the identity and the underlying evidence as unconfirmed pending additional documentation or statements from Nvidia, U.S. intelligence agencies, or Chinese authorities.

How did China respond to the spy claims?

China's government has dismissed the broader set of reports, framing them as part of what it calls a smear campaign aimed at ensnaring Nvidia's chief executive, according to the Post's headline framing of its own story. The Post's article title — describing China's position as dismissing "reports of a plot to ensnare" Huang in a smear campaign — indicates Beijing is pushing back on the narrative that one of its intelligence operatives targeted the Nvidia CEO, though the full text of China's official statement was not included in the material reviewed for this report. The dispute leaves two competing frames in public view: an American president's account that his own call with a U.S. tech executive touched on an alleged Chinese espionage operation, against a Chinese government position that the entire story is manufactured.

Why is Nvidia's CEO under this scrutiny now?

Huang runs the company that designs the advanced processors underpinning much of the current build-out of artificial intelligence systems, a position that has placed Nvidia and its leadership at the center of Washington's broader trade and technology friction with Beijing. The Post's reporting does not detail why this particular allegation surfaced now, what agency or source initially raised the spy claim, or whether it is connected to any pending export-control matter involving Nvidia's chips. Those gaps mean the current story should be read as an account of a presidential phone call and a Chinese denial, not as a resolved finding about espionage.

What happens next?

The available reporting leaves open several questions that would need answering before the public has a fuller picture of what, if anything, occurred.

• Whether Nvidia or Huang issues a direct, on-the-record statement addressing Trump's account of the Monday call
• Whether U.S. intelligence or law enforcement agencies confirm, deny, or clarify the claim that the woman was a Chinese intelligence asset
• Whether China's government offers a fuller public statement beyond dismissing the matter as a smear campaign
• Whether the episode affects ongoing U.S.-China discussions over AI chip exports, given Nvidia's central role in that trade

Until those pieces surface, the only documented facts are that Trump says he spoke to Huang Monday, that Huang acknowledged an affair with a company customer, that Trump says Huang denied knowing she was a spy, and that China has rejected the broader narrative as a smear campaign, per the Washington Post's reporting.