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

Six months before Nvidia's spy scandal broke publicly, short-seller firm Culper Research published a report questioning what it called an "uncomfortably close" relationship between CEO Jensen Huang and Alice Huang, an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company that purchases Nvidia chips. The May 13 report is now resurfacing after Jensen Huang acknowledged an extramarital affair over the weekend and Nvidia opened a formal investigation into his relationship with Alice Huang, who shares his surname but is not related to him.

U.S. intelligence officials believe Alice Huang was recruited by the Chinese government to collect intelligence on Jensen Huang and to influence his position on U.S. export controls covering advanced AI chips. Culper's report had flagged the two executives being spotted partying and socializing on multiple occasions, and claimed some Nvidia employees had privately wondered whether they shared a "special relationship." The report was posted to X in May and remains available on Culper's website.

Beyond the personal connection, Culper advanced a broader thesis about Nvidia's China business. The firm theorized that sales Nvidia lost to export controls were rerouted through Southeast Asia, and that Megaspeed — described as a major chip buyer in the region — was secretly financed by Alibaba through shell companies. Culper pointed to financial records showing Megaspeed's total liabilities and equity growing from $33 million at the end of 2023 to roughly $3 billion by the end of 2024, with much of that increase taking the form of refundable deposits from an unidentified source. The Financial Times reported Monday that documents show Alibaba lent money to Megaspeed through subsidiaries, partially corroborating that financing thread.

Culper is a short seller, meaning it stood to profit financially from betting against Nvidia stock, and its allegations of possible illegal chip diversion have not been independently verified. The firm announced its short position publicly on X back in May alongside its full report and disclosures. That caveat matters when weighing the report's claims against the now-separate, officially acknowledged facts: the affair admission and Nvidia's internal investigation.

What remains unresolved is how much of Culper's financial picture — the Alibaba financing, the deposit flows, the Southeast Asia rerouting theory — survives independent scrutiny, and whether Nvidia's investigation addresses only the personal relationship or the broader questions about Megaspeed's role in the company's supply chain. Also open: how U.S. export-control enforcement and intelligence officials will respond if the suspected recruitment is confirmed, and whether other chip purchasers in the region face similar scrutiny.