---
title: The Memo That Led to Jensen Huang's Fall Was Reportedly Marco Rubio's Stronger Version of a CIA Report
description: Marco Rubio recast the CIA's reporting on Alice Huang in stronger terms, a person familiar told the Post, as US intelligence officials question the spy label.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-11-14T22:20:12.698Z
updated: 2026-11-14T22:20:12.707Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/rubio-memo-alice-huang-cia
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/rubio-memo-alice-huang-cia.webp
categories: Politics, Business
content_type: News
region: United States
publication: Sovereign Magazine
about:
  - type: Person
    name: Marco Rubio
    description: Marco Rubio is the US Secretary of State and National Security Adviser, and was a senator for Florida from 2011 to 2025.
    jobTitle: US Secretary of State and National Security Adviser
  - type: Person
    name: Alice Huang
    description: Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, is a Chinese businesswoman and former executive of Megaspeed, the Singapore computing company and Nvidia customer.
    jobTitle: Former executive, Megaspeed
    worksFor: Megaspeed
---

Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote his classified memo on Alice Huang from a CIA report, recasting "the agency's reporting in his own more assertive terms", a person familiar with the matter told [the Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/11/13/behind-jensen-huangs-spy-scandal-shadow-war-trumps-ear-china/). The now infamous memo describes Alice Huang, a former executive of the Nvidia customer Megaspeed, as a recruit of China's Ministry of State Security, according to the New York Times and the Financial Times, and their reports on it since 29 October began the scandal that ended with [Jensen Huang's resignation as Nvidia's chief executive](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/jensen-huang-resigns-nvidia), announced on 12 November.

No US agency has said in public that Alice Huang was a spy, and none has presented evidence that she was. "There's no conclusions reached by the Department of Justice or by me or by Director Patel around who she is or is not," Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a press conference on 12 November, referring to FBI Director Kash Patel. Asked when the department learned that she might be a Chinese asset, he said the question "assumes something that I have never said and that I don't know to be true."

According to [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/12/politics/alice-huang-us-intel-jensen-huang-nvidia), officials at the CIA "are not yet convinced" that the intelligence gathered on her, including intercepted communications, "proves she was knowingly funneling information back to Beijing". Some officials at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, "including those close to director Jay Clayton", have described the account of her as a Chinese spy as "not entirely accurate and over-torqued", while other officials believe that her access to Huang, and through him to President Donald Trump, made her "a clear counterintelligence risk" even if she had passed nothing on. She has not been charged, and China denies the allegation.

## The Memo Followed Intercepts That Revealed Huang's Relationship, CNN Reports

The Post says Rubio's memo warned Trump about the relationship. In a separate report on 13 November, CNN said that Rubio set out the intelligence in a memo for "a very small group of senior US officials, including at the White House", that it "was not drafted specifically for President Donald Trump", and that Trump was briefed on the subject several times. Several people who read the memo said that sharing the information with officials who dealt with Huang on behalf of the government was "a prudent move".

According to CNN, the intelligence began with intercepted communications in the spring that showed a Megaspeed executive was in a relationship with an American whose name was hidden, or masked, in the reports. Officials asked for the name to be revealed, and it was Jensen Huang. Alice Huang had been an important target for the National Security Agency for at least several months by then. US intelligence also obtained communications that "appeared to indicate someone with close access to Jensen Huang and Nvidia was the source of information that ended up in Chinese intelligence streams", according to a person familiar with the investigation.

> "There's no conclusions reached by the Department of Justice or by me or by Director Patel around who she is or is not."
> — Todd Blanche, US Attorney General

## China Hawks Had Spent Years Trying to Curb Huang's Influence Over Trump, the Post Reports

The Post describes the episode as part of a long fight over who sets Trump's policy on China, and Huang's departure as a win for officials, lawmakers and analysts who had spent years trying to limit his influence over chip exports. Many of Trump's national security team did not share the president's view on selling chips to China, according to a former official who worked on chip policy and is still connected to the industry, who likened Huang's relationship to handing those officials a "nuclear bomb". "They wanted to destroy the influence Jensen had over the president," the former official told the Post.

In two years Huang went from a Washington outsider to a Trump confidant, the Wall Street Journal reported on 13 November. According to the paper, Nvidia committed $25 million to the White House ballroom, Trump has bought Nvidia shares in his personal brokerage accounts since returning to office, and Trump often overruled officials who raised concerns about Huang and did not act when his advisers circulated the memo in the spring. A White House spokesperson told the paper that the president does not pick individual stocks and that independent managers run his portfolio.

Rubio has argued for tighter chip controls since he was a senator. In a letter to the Commerce Department in May 2023, he wrote that "Nvidia, for example, is creating downgraded versions of its products for the Chinese market to skirt the rule" and that the department's export rule "needs to be strengthened, finalized, and vigorously enforced." Rubio and other advisers persuaded Trump not to allow sales of Nvidia's Blackwell chips to China, the Journal has reported.

## Reuters Says Huang Told Nvidia's Lawyer His Dealings With Alice Huang Were Routine

In two messages in October, Huang told Nvidia leaders, including the general counsel, Tim Teter, and the chief marketing officer, Alison Wagonfeld, that his interactions with Alice Huang were standard business dealings with customers, according to internal correspondence reviewed by Reuters. Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters that he had misled them about the nature of the relationship, and that he had discussed suing the New York Times over an article in October 2025 about his public meetings with her. It has not been established who Huang had an affair with. His memo to staff admitting he had been unfaithful named no one, and none of the relationships reported since, with Alice Huang, with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare, and with a second, unnamed Nvidia employee, has been confirmed by Huang, Nvidia or the women.

In Singapore, where Megaspeed is based, [the Ministry of Home Affairs said on 12 November](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/who-is-alice-huang-megaspeed) that its investigation of Alice Huang did not concern espionage, but that she had given police information she knew to be inaccurate and played down her role in the company.

## Trump Allies Now Question the Spy Allegation and Ask Who Leaked the Memo

David Sacks, Trump's former adviser on AI and crypto, wrote on X after CNN's first report that "the spy narrative is collapsing already" and that "the only crime that we know for sure happened is the leaking of the classified memo. Who did that and why?" Elon Musk wrote on 13 November that a petition to reinstate Huang was under way and that he was signing it.

The New York Times's reporting on Megaspeed began with a tip. Tripp Mickle, one of the reporters, said on the paper's podcast The Daily on 10 November that in August 2025 "a tech industry contact of ours" told him and his colleague Ana Swanson to "drop everything and look at this company called Megaspeed".

"What's the relationship with Alice Huang and the Chinese, and what do we know about what influence or information was traded? Because today, at least, I don't know," Jim Himes, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on 12 November. Three Republican committee chairs, among them the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, want to put those questions to Huang directly, and have [asked him to sit for a transcribed interview on 1 December](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/jensen-huang-testify-congress-lutnick).

## FAQ

**Q: Who is Alice Huang and where is she now?**
Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen also known as Huang Le, is a former executive of Megaspeed, a Singapore company whose business is renting out computing power on Nvidia hardware. A classified US memo written by Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly describes her as a recruit of China's Ministry of State Security, but China denies the allegation and the Justice Department says it has reached no conclusion about her. Singapore says she left the country in February 2026 and has been barred from returning. She has been reported to be living in Beijing.

**Q: Why is Jensen Huang being investigated?**
Lawmakers and Nvidia's board want to know whether Huang's relationship with Alice Huang put US national security or Nvidia's secrets at risk. Nvidia's independent directors are continuing an investigation led by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, three Republican House committee chairs have asked him for a transcribed interview on 1 December, and the Senate Banking Committee has asked him to testify on 3 December. Attorney General Todd Blanche has said the FBI is looking at the matter.

**Q: Did Jensen Huang support Trump?**
Huang became one of the business leaders closest to Trump in his second term. Nvidia pledged to invest $500 billion in the US and committed $25 million to the White House ballroom, and Trump let Nvidia sell H200 chips in China in return for the US government taking a cut. Trump reportedly told Huang to fight for his job and has called him a legend since he resigned, while saying it has not been determined whether Alice Huang was a spy.