US officials believed that Alice Huang had been recruited to spy by China's top intelligence agency, the New York Times reported. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

Alice Huang, who is of no relation to Jensen Huang, was a top executive at Singapore-based data centre firm Megaspeed. The firm had been suspected of helping divert Nvidia chips to China, a concern that Nvidia maintains was investigated and debunked.

However, the BBC understands Megaspeed is under investigation by the Singapore government regarding previous allegations that the company was circumventing US sanctions on the export of Nvidia's high-end chips.

The company told the New York Times last month its current leadership took the allegations seriously and had appointed external legal advisers to conduct an internal investigation.

Surveillance reportedly revealed communications between Alice Huang and an American citizen, who was subsequently identified as Jensen Huang through a process known as "unmasking".

It remains unclear what, if any, intellegence Alice Huang – who is also known as Huang Le – allegedly gathered and passed to Beijing. She did not respond to the paper's request for comment.

When the BBC asked Nvidia if the company was aware of intelligence concerns, the company said it was not.

"We trust that if we were the target of a genuine threat, the US government would have notified us," an Nvidia spokesperson told the BBC.

China has previously rejected the spying allegations, with a spokesperson saying that "the allegations about Chinese spies are entirely groundless, speculative and intended to smear and malign China".

The New York Times reported in late October that Trump had been briefed last year on intelligence alleging Alice Huang was spying on China's behalf.

Asked by reporters on Sunday whether he wished he had "acted on the intelligence", Trump responded: "No, I don't think so. I think he's an honourable guy."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, refused to comment when asked about Huang. Last spring, the secretary of state reportedly oversaw the drafting of a memo that warned the Trump administration about Huang's relationship with the Chinese businesswoman, according to the New York Times.