Firms Tied to Alice Huang Invested in DeepSeek and Promised It Blackwell Chips, Sources Tell The Information, as Jensen Huang Resigns

Nvidia said today, Nov. 12, that Jensen Huang resigned as president, chief executive and director, and named Colette Kress interim CEO. The same day, The Information reported that companies tied to Alice Huang, the businesswoman at the center of the affair scandal, invested in China's DeepSeek and promised to supply it with Nvidia's Blackwell processors.

The Information cited three people with knowledge of the matter. Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, has not been charged with anything.

The DeepSeek round

DeepSeek's second funding round ran from July to October and raised about CN¥105.5 billion, roughly $15.8 billion. According to the report, DeepSeek employees introduced two companies to prospective investors: Shanghai Century Litong and its Shanghai-listed parent, Jiangsu Lettall Electronic. The industry refers to the pair collectively as "Litong Inc."

Those employees described the firms as "substantial suppliers of blackmarket Nvidia AI chips" that deserved a share of the round, the report said. Both took part, investing through special purpose vehicles that kept their names off DeepSeek's direct shareholder register.

One of the sources told The Information the investments were meant to build ties so the firms could supply DeepSeek with Blackwell chips. U.S. export rules bar those chips from sale in China.

The amount invested has not been disclosed. Whether any promised chips were delivered is unclear.

The distance between Huang and Litong

The link to Alice Huang is indirect. The Information said she has never directly held shares or executive posts at Century Litong or Lettall. It reconstructed the connection through commercial records involving her sister and her husband.

The outlet has also reported that a network tied to Huang, her husband and her sister helped move about 240,000 Nvidia processors into China, worth at least $7.5 billion, since 2023.

Litong rejects the characterization. The company told The Information that "all business resources of our company are obtained in compliance with applicable laws and regulations." It has also denied having business dealings with Huang.

A Huawei connection

A separate set of allegations came from Tesari, a private intelligence firm that provides research to companies and the U.S. government. Tesari shared its findings exclusively with CNBC.

The firm's analysts say businesses connected to Huang were linked to supplying Nvidia computing power to Huawei around December 2023, when she and Jensen Huang were first seen together publicly. CNBC reviewed documents on the arrangement. Nvidia named Huawei a top AI-chip competitor in 2024.

Tesari's analysts told CNBC the structure is so convoluted they suspect it was built to obscure the relationship. Brian Andersen, Tesari's vice president for national security applications and a former Homeland Security Investigations supervisory special agent, said the activity "warrants a national security and [technology] counterproliferation investigation."

Andersen said that if the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security and HSI found unauthorized transfers of controlled equipment to Huawei, potential charges could include export-control violations, conspiracy and smuggling. That is one analyst's view, not a finding by any agency.

Singapore and the intelligence claim

Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs said the Singapore Police Force assessed that Huang tried to mislead investigators to downplay her role in Megaspeed, the Singapore data-center company she controls. She received a stern warning and was barred from re-entering the country.

The probe concerns suspected false declarations on server purchases and related offenses. Singapore police and Singapore Customs opened separate investigations into Megaspeed and others in February 2025.

The New York Times reported last month that U.S. authorities concluded Huang was a Chinese intelligence asset who passed information to Beijing. That allegation is unproven, and China has denied it.

Fallout in Washington and on the stock

Reuters reported that White House officials are discussing whether to push Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick out over a freeze on additions to a key U.S. trade blacklist. The documents tie that discussion to the Nvidia fallout, but no official has said the two are connected.

Stocktwits reported that Nvidia shares fell about 5% on Thursday after Jensen Huang stepped down. A drop in the share price does not establish who held the stock or what anyone lost.

What remains open

The DeepSeek account rests on anonymous sources and a single outlet's reporting. Litong denies it. The Information's own account puts Alice Huang one step removed from the firms in question.

No charges have been filed against her in the United States. Andersen has called for a Commerce and HSI investigation into the Huawei links. Neither agency has announced one.

Whether any of this becomes an export-control case depends on one fact: did Blackwell chips ever reach DeepSeek? Nobody on the record has said.