Nvidia Loses $450 Billion in Two Days as Spy Scandal Grows Around Megaspeed
A little-known short seller flagged Jensen Huang's ties to Alice Huang and a Singapore chip buyer in May. Nvidia's stock is now down 25% since.
Nvidia's market value has fallen by $450 billion over two days after revelations about CEO Jensen Huang's links to a woman U.S. intelligence suspects of working for China, CBS News reported. The relationship is now under investigation by Nvidia's own board.
The trouble was foreshadowed in May by a little-known New York short seller. Christian Lamarco of Culper Research published a 40-page report on May 13 highlighting Huang's ties to Alice Huang, who is no relation, a former television reporter and financial-industry executive. Culper disclosed that it had bet against Nvidia's stock. Short sellers profit when a share price falls.
Lamarco built the report on interviews with employees of Chinese companies, corporate filings in Singapore and Malaysia, and social-media posts that appeared to show the two at events together. He wrote that Jensen Huang appeared to have an "uncomfortably close relationship" with Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le. She was a top executive at Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based company now at the center of the scandal. U.S. intelligence suspects her of being an asset of China's Ministry of State Security.
Culper also made a broader claim. "We believe Nvidia has a significant China problem," it wrote. Nvidia says its China business went to zero after April 2025 U.S. trade restrictions, but Culper argued that over 20% of the company's fiscal 2026 compute revenue was still driven by China through illegal diversion and Southeast Asian middlemen. It said filings suggest Megaspeed was financed by Alibaba.
The numbers are large. Megaspeed and its Malaysian affiliate, Speedmatrix, bought $4.8 billion of Nvidia's advanced AI equipment and processors over three years, according to the report and CBS News. Culper said Megaspeed had few assets at the end of 2023 but spent $2.9 billion on Nvidia-powered servers within a year. "This is the exact sort of pattern that experts told us ought to raise alarm bells at Nvidia," it said.
Others had raised similar concerns. In a March 23 letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Jim Banks warned of a "large-scale diversion of advanced American AI chips to China through Southeast Asian intermediaries" and asked Commerce to suspend export licenses for Nvidia chips to China and to companies in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Nvidia's board has said it has no reason to believe the company's secrets or national security were compromised. "The Board prioritizes U.S. national and economic security, which is paramount to the interests of NVIDIA and its shareholders," it said. Megaspeed has said investigations found no evidence of illicit chip transfers.
Nvidia shares traded at $225.83 on the day Culper published. They have lost 25% of their value since then, through Tuesday's close. "Everyone was just mocking us, and now everyone is singing our praises," Lamarco told The New York Times. China expert Jacqueline Deal said that if the allegations are true, the question is "who will be fired," and that Nvidia's compliance team "may have failed utterly."
