Huang has admitted to having an affair with a suspected Chinese spy who was reportedly central to the “foreign intelligence effort”.

Here are some of the key questions around the story, and its implications for US-China relations.

What has happened?

Nvidia, the maker of the computer chips crucial to developing and operating AI systems such as ChatGPT, and its CEO are reportedly the target of a Chinese espionage sting.

Nvidia has been selling its much sought-after chips to a little-known Singapore-based datacentre company, Megaspeed. US officials had been concerned that Megaspeed might have been helping Chinese firms bypass restrictions on chip exports to China, by diverting semiconductors – the computer chips that underpin most modern technology - to the US’s chief AI rival.

Those concerns about Megaspeed were first reported last year but the story became explosive when the New York Times reported last month that a Megaspeed executive, Huang Le – a Chinese citizen also known as Alice Huang – had…