A short seller flagged Nvidia CEO's ties to a suspected Chinese spy six months before the scandal

Key Points:

• Six months before the Nvidia spy scandal broke, Culper Research raised concerns about Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s close relationship with Alice Huang, an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based Nvidia chip buyer now suspected of being a Chinese spy.
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang admitted to an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, prompting a formal company investigation amid U.S. intelligence suspicions that she was recruited by China to gather intelligence and influence U.S. export control policies on AI chips.
• Culper Research’s May report highlighted the unusually close relationship between the two executives, noting social interactions and speculation among Nvidia employees about a “special relationship.”
• The report also suggested that Nvidia’s lost China business due to export controls may have been rerouted through Southeast Asia, with Megaspeed potentially financed by Alibaba via shell companies, supported by financial records showing Megaspeed’s liabilities and equity surged from $33 million to $3 billion within a year.
• Financial Times corroborated these findings, reporting that documents reveal Alibaba lent money to Megaspeed through its subsidiaries.