The activities and identity of Alice Hwang, also known as Huang Le, who was previously involved in a romantic relationship with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, are gradually coming to light. Suspected by U.S. intelligence agencies of being a Chinese spy, Alice allegedly used her relationship with Huang to supply 240,00owa advanced artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors from NVIDIA to China from 2023 until recently. It has also been revealed that she has operated in the Chinese and Southeast Asian IT industries for over a decade as either the spouse or partner of Chinese financier Kang Wei (51).
According to the U.S. IT-focused media outlet The Information on the 10th (local time), Alice, along with Kang Wei and her younger sister Huang Wei, established a large-scale corporate network across China, Singapore, and Malaysia to secure NVIDIA’s semiconductors. They utilized entities such as ‘Shanghai Century Litong,’ a cloud service company established in Shanghai, China, and ‘Megaspeed,’ founded in Singapore.
Shanghai Century Litong, where Huang Wei is listed as a founding shareholder, was established in June 2023. Just four months later, in October of that year, it secured the status of a ‘Preferred Cloud Partner’ with NVIDIA to receive priority semiconductor supplies. However, as supplies were disrupted or delayed due to U.S. export controls against China, Alice leveraged her connections within NVIDIA and other firms to secure the volume, according to The Information.
Under current U.S. export control regulations, Chinese companies are strictly prohibited from directly owning advanced NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs). Consequently, Alice and her associates procured 240,000 advanced NVIDIA semiconductorsβincluding H100, H200, and A100 modelsβvalued at a minimum of $7.5 billion (approx. 10 trillion KRW) by leasing AI computing resources outside of China (such as cloud services handling AI learning and computation on their behalf) or smuggling them into the country. These chips were provided to Alibaba, Tencent, and various small-to-medium-sized AI companies within China for training AI models.
Alice leveraged her relationship with Huang to build trust among the tech industry and investors. The Information reported that Alice publicly displayed closeness by showing photos of herself alongside Huang to those around her.
Alice’s marital status has also drawn significant attention. Kang Wei is known to have played a major role in establishing the corporate network for Alice’s NVIDIA semiconductor supply operations. Once hailed as a stock market ‘prodigy’ in China during the 2000s, Kang is the founder of the Chinese private equity firm ‘Hershey Capital.’ Reports from Chinese financial media outlet Caixin and others indicate that Alice promoted the ability to securely obtain NVIDIA GPUs while soliciting funds with Kang for Southeast Asian data center projects, introducing Kang to associates as her husband.
Claims have also emerged suggesting Alice’s true age differed from her previously reported birth year of 1984 (age 42). Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily reported on the 11th, based on photos and class records presumed to be of Alice, that she entered the first year of high school at Jiangan Middle School in Xiangtan City, Hunan Province, in 1993. Working backward, this suggests Alice was born in 1977, making her 49 years old this year.
Furthermore, assertions have surfaced that Alice drew the attention of those around her even in the past. A woman in her 50s who knew Alice in Hong Kong between 2007 and 2008 told the Singaporean media outlet 8world that her greatest weapons were extreme confidence and a sweet smile, noting that men seemed instantly captivated by her presence.
