Short seller warned of Nvidia's China problem 6 months before Jensen Huang affair surfaced

“This is not a bet against AI. We are short Nvidia for one reason: the Company has a significant China problem.” This excerpt comes from a report that Culper Research published in May 2026. One of these problems, as it turns out, was real. Six months later, Jensen Huang who is the founder and CEO of Nvidia, has admitted that he was unfaithful to Lori Huang, his wife to whom he has been married for more than 40 years. The “other” party involved in this affair is Alice Huang, who is suspected of being a Chinese spy, making things murkier.Culper Research had in a way blown the whistle on this scandal six months back pointing out Jensen and Huang’s professional relationship as “uncomfortably close.” When they first met, Alice was associated with a Singapore-based company called Megaspeed. Alice, who is reported to be the founder of Megaspeed, is under the scanner for her alleged ties with China, particularly Beijing's top intelligence agency aka Ministry of State Security (MSS). The MSS had allegedly recruited Alice to get close to Jensen and spy on him with the intent of possibly gaining inside information on AI chips. High-end Nvidia chips are seen as vital US national asset. The US has banned Nvidia from selling select top-of-the-line Blackwell and Rubin chips to China.Officials in the US are now concerned that Jensen’s relationship with Alice may have allowed China to get sensitive information about AI chips or even bypass US’ export controls. While this affair is gaining traction, turns out that this reveal may only be the tip of the iceberg. According to Culper Research, Nvidia – and invariably the US – may have a China problem.Short seller flags Jensen Huang’s closeness to AliceThe story begins with Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based cloud computing firm where Alice served as a top executive. Some reports also suggest she is one of the founders of Megaspeed. Culper Research had claimed – six months ago – that Megaspeed was spun out of a Chinese company 7Road allegedly designed to rout Nvidia chip purchases to Chinese companies, including Alibaba. Alice’s relations with Jensen were paramount to this venture. Though, the short seller had stayed clear of calling it an affair, in its report, Culper Research had called the relationship between Jensen and Alice “uncomfortably close.” Jensen and Alice were spotted publicly on multiple occasions. The two were first seen together at a party in Taipei in June 2024. Alice had reportedly told attendees at the party, “I bet you guys I can get Jensen here.” Shortly afterwards, the Nvidia CEO arrived at the scene.Their next public appearance was at a dinner in Taiwan in May the following year, just weeks after the US had curbed trade on AI chips to China. But this appearance was a bit different. Alice seemingly did not want to be seen with the Nvidia chief. “Alice Huang seems to spot the reporters who had gathered outside, and stops dead in her tracks,” Culper Research wrote in the report. The report also touched upon alleged deals between Nvidia and Megaspeed. Jensen reportedly visited Megaspeed-linked data centres “every few months” and “every single time” he visited, representatives from Alibaba would be present, Culper Research said.This left many at Nvidia wondering if Megaspeed had special relations with Jensen. “People thought they have some relationship with Jensen Oh yeah, 100 per cent they (Nvidia) know that these (GPUs) are not where they’re supposed to be,” an anonymous Nvidia employee was quoted in the report.At the same time, while Alice is no longer formally a part of Megaspeed, employees quoted in the report state the opposite. “Alice Huang is actually still our boss,” one Megaspeed employee said. Even though in the media it says that she is no longer the director. But she is still our director, in fact she is one of the top 3 in the company.”Megaspeed allegedly routing Nvidia chips to China?While all of this indicates that Alice and Megaspeed allegedly had a special relationship with Jensen Huang, the story goes deeper. Alice Huang was reportedly tasked with gaining access to advanced Nvidia hardware for Chinese companies.Megaspeed is said to be Nvidia's largest chip buyer in Southeast Asia. These purchases, the report alleged, were financed by Alibaba through a chain of companies. Megaspeed's accounts showed its assets rose from $32.9 million at the end of 2023 to about $3 billion a year later, driven largely by $2.9 billion in refundable deposits from an unidentified source.“Megaspeed is just the tip of the iceberg,” a former Nvidia employee was quoted by Culper Research in the report. Much of the $2.9 billion payment was recorded as being due from subsidiaries, including Malaysia-based Speedmatrix, per the short seller.In June 2024, Speedmatrix pledged its equipment, IP and insurance to Singapore-based Apex Enterprise Solutions, two months before starting operations. Corporate filings identify Alibaba as Apex's ultimate parent. Apex reported more than $4.1 billion in prepayments and other receivables and about $4.2 billion in loans payable to related companies as of March 31, 2025.Culper said the records suggested Alibaba had financed Apex, which may then have funded Megaspeed and Speedmatrix's purchases of Nvidia-powered servers. But this alleged funding chain has not been independently verified.Along the same lines, the report also links Megaspeed to Thailand-based Obon, which allegedly helped smuggle at least $2.5 billion of Nvidia-powered servers to China.However, Nvidia has inspected Megapseed in the past. Nvidia concluded that Megaspeed was “wholly owned and operated by a company based and headquartered outside China, with no China shareholders.” It later said checks covering about 86,000 GPUs found the chips where they were supposed to be.While this web of subsidiaries and companies may be confusing, investigation is ongoing. Nvidia has set up an internal investigation to examine whether any national security matters were exposed. The FBI is also investigating Jensen’s affair. The Nvidia CEO has cancelled public visits scheduled this week at events held by Anthropic and ElevenLabs. Jensen’s daughter, Madison, also cancelled her planned visit to South Korea for an Nvidia event.So far, Jensen Huang has not made any comments on the affair after sending out a memo to Nvidia employees. “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did,” he wrote in the memo. “I am deeply sorry.”- Ends