Trump looking closely at Chinese spy plot targeting Nvidia CEO

U.S. President Donald Trump expressed his support for Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang after it was revealed that the tech CEO might be the subject of a Chinese spy plot.

The New York Times reported on Saturday that U.S. intelligence found a Chinese tech executive who had been interacting with Huang had been funneling information about the CEO and his firm to China.

China dismissed the intelligence report as “groundless speculation” while Trump said the U.S. is looking “very closely” at the issue.

“I have a lot of respect for Jensen. I didn’t know about the specific thing, but I hope he’s going to be OK. He’s a great, brilliant person, and we want to protect our brilliant people,” Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago.

“We’re going to check it out very closely,” the president added.

Huang has been an advisor to Trump on AI policy and was among the CEOs who joined him on his visit to Beijing to meet Xi Jinping in May, when asked whether he would still keep Huang as an adviser, Trump said:

“I would like to say yes. I mean, unless we find out something to the contrary, I’ve always found Jensen Huang to be very above board.”

“But you know, you’re dealing in a very complex issue,” Trump added.

Huang, who was born in Taiwan, has advocated for the use of Nvidia’s computer chips in China as the country has been ramping up development of its own semiconductors.