Alice Huangs turn an Nvidia scandal into jokes and opportunities

The 41-year-old changed her LinkedIn headline to “NOT A SPY,” riffing on US intelligence officials’ reported belief that the other Alice Huang passed information to Beijing. Attorney General Todd Blanche has said the government is investigating, but has not concluded whether she is a spy. China has repeatedly denied the allegations. The woman at the center of the scandal has been barred from re-entry into Singapore; she and Jensen Huang are not related.

The Austin Huang is looking for a chief of staff or operations role and is taking the messages seriously. One person contacted her about a chief of staff position; another said they were “connecting for the name” but saw a chance to work together. She said the response—her phone began buzzing, and ChatGPT estimated 300 connection requests an hour—was startling. “If they like my sense of humor, I know they're the right kind of people for me,” she said.

Other women with the same name have also found themselves fielding attention. A 33-year-old Bay Area Alice Huang, who works in the semiconductor industry, said colleagues approach her cubicle with jokes. She used a LinkedIn post opening, “It's Alice Huang here. No, not that one,” to raise money for local nonprofits through Cornell's Bay Area alumni network. One alum sent her an Amazon package with the note, “Stay away from Jensen!” She is also planning a Halloween costume: she would dress as the Megaspeed executive, her husband as a GPU, and their 1-year-old daughter as a leather-jacketed Jensen.

In Redondo Beach, a 51-year-old Pilates instructor named Alice Huang turned a client’s joke about being in the news into an Instagram post. She suggested the Nvidia scandal might not have happened if its founder did more Pilates. Friends, relatives and former colleagues have since contacted the women, including people from Australia and London. Huang said her parents chose her name after one of Taiwan’s mountains, adding that Alice Huang is a common Taiwanese name.

The 2020 Census ranked Huang the 314th most common US surname, with 98,330 people bearing it; Alice ranked 249th among first names. A LinkedIn search shows Alice Huangs working in healthcare, nonprofits and banking.