In the glossy conference rooms and late-night networking parties of Silicon Valley, the battle for global innovation supremacy is taking a disquieting turn.
Intelligence experts say that Chinese and Russian operatives are no longer relying just on cyberattacks or hacking campaigns; they are using seduction.
A new report by The Times (UK) reveals how “sex warfare,” the use of romance, charm, and manipulation to extract sensitive information has become a tool of espionage targeting America’s tech elite. The revelations have left the world’s most powerful innovation hub shaken.
LinkedIn lures and ‘honeytrap’ tactics
James Mulvenon, the chief intelligence officer of Pamir Consulting, which provides risk assessments for American companies investing in China, says he has seen a dramatic uptick in such tactics.
“I’m getting an enormous number of very sophisticated LinkedIn requests from the same type of attractive young Chinese woman,” said Mulvenon to Times UK. “It really seems to have ramped up recently.”
He recalled an incident last week at a Virginia conference on Chinese investment risks. “Two attractive Chinese women showed up and attempted to gain entry. We didn’t let them in,” he told to Times UK. “But they had all the information [about the event] and everything else.”
Mulvenon, who has investigated espionage in the US for three decades, admitted the phenomenon was “weird” but deeply concerning.
“It is a phenomenon. And I will tell you: it is weird,” he said, adding that such “honeytrap” tactics pose “a real vulnerability” for the US “because we, by statute and by culture, do not do that. So they have an asymmetric advantage when it comes to sex warfare,” he explained to Times UK.
Love, marriage and some secrets
In one particularly unsettling case, a former counterintelligence official described a Russian woman who allegedly married her target in a long-term espionage operation.
“She is trying to get to the heights of the military-space innovation community. The husband’s totally oblivious,” he added to Times UK.
He explained that the woman, once a model and later a cryptocurrency expert, had attended a “Russian soft-power school” before resurfacing in the US.
“Showing up, marrying a target, having kids with a target, and conducting a lifelong collection operation. It’s very uncomfortable to think about but it’s so prevalent,” he added to Times UK. “If I wanted to be out of the shadows, I’d write a book on it.”
The theft of trade secrets costs the US as much as $600 billion a year, according to the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property. China is seen as the principal culprit.
In 2023, two former Tesla contractors including Klaus Pflugbeil and Yilong Shao were accused of trying to sell stolen trade secrets related to battery technology. Pflugbeil was sentenced to two years in prison; Shao remains on the run.
American officials are also warning about seemingly harmless international startup contests, which may be thinly disguised intelligence-gathering operations.
Mulvenon’s warning
Mulvenon warns that Chinese-backed venture capitalists are targeting US startups with Pentagon funding to quietly gain ownership stakes, a tactic he calls “drafting.”
“The percentage of foreign ownership crosses a threshold so the DoD can’t make any more investments in those companies, denying the government access to innovative startups and IP,” he explained to Times UK.“It’s the latest iteration of the Chinese gameplay.”
A Senate committee recently found that six of the 25 largest recipients of Pentagon innovation funds had “clear links” to China, yet still received nearly $180 million in 2023 and 2024.
Jeff Stoff, a former US government national security analyst, said China’s tactics often exploit America’s openness and its legal blind spots.
“The Chinese understand our system and they know how to work within it with virtual impunity most of the time,” he said.
“China is targeting our startups, our academic institutions, our innovators, our DoD-funded research projects. But there’s not enough oversight and action. It’s all intertwined as part of China’s economic warfare strategy, and we’ve not even entered the battlefield,” stoff warned in his conversation with Times UK.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk, Tesla CEO reacted to this report, saying, “If she’s a 10, you’re an asset..”
If she’s a 10, you’re an asset 💯😂 pic.twitter.com/Fc9twx1BPp
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 23, 2025
‘Looks like a plot for a netflix documentary’
Netizens posted their opinion on the recent development across social media. A user noted, “This sounds like the beginning of a plot for a movie. Kinda like Red Sparrow meets Devs. “Another added, ” Our greatest international weakness- everything is run by incel dorks lmao.” “Sadly they only target the top executive level,” commented a netizen. Another noted, “They wasted time training models when they could have sent any woman with a pulse.” “Looks like a plot for a netflix documentary,” opined a user.
(The details, opinions, and statements quoted herein belong solely to the original poster and do not reflect the views of Financialexpress.com. We have not independently verified the claims.)
