Alice Huang's role in channelling Nvidia chips beyond US controls

The swift ascent of Alice Huang's Megaspeed reveals the financial trail showing how Nvidia's chips kept benefiting firms in China despite tough US export restrictions.

In just three years, she quietly built the Singapore company into Nvidia's biggest AI chip buyer across Southeast Asia.

After Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang owned up to a romantic relationship with her, and US officials determined she operated for Chinese state intelligence, that puzzling rise becomes far clearer.

Alice Huang skilfully exploited her connection with the married billionaire and put together a clever import/export plan that moved one of the world's most precious goods from the US into Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Put simply, Alice Huang used Megaspeed's Singapore base to bring Nvidia's AI chip hardware into data centres in Malaysia and Indonesia, and Chinese firms such as Alibaba would then lease large portions of that computing capacity.

By November 2025, customs records indicate Megaspeed had brought at least $4.6 billion of Nvidia hardware into Southeast Asia. That involved no fewer than 136,000 GPUs — among them Blackwell chips that the US had at times banned for sale to China.

Jensen Huang acknowledged the affair this past weekend and offered a public apology to his wife, shareholders and the board of directors. Shares of Nvidia, the second-largest listed company globally, dropped more than 6% by the start of trading the previous day.

Alice Huang's Megaspeed earned Nvidia's confidence

In October 2022, President Joe Biden introduced sweeping limits on advanced AI chip shipments to China.

Five months on, 7Road, a gaming company that lists Beijing's central government among its shareholders, split off its Singapore division. After a British Virgin Islands entity named Huang Le Ltd. purchased it, Alice Huang took charge.

In November 2023, Huang Le Ltd. sold Megaspeed to a Singapore shell corporation owned by its present CEO, Tan Yong Pong.

Four days later, Nvidia designated Megaspeed an official Nvidia Cloud Partner — a highly prestigious, restricted membership that let Megaspeed obtain chips at the frontier of Nvidia's AI capabilities.

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Megaspeed's clever routing of imports and exports

Megaspeed was shrewd. Its Malaysian arm, Speedmatrix, pledged its gear and intellectual property to an Alibaba procurement division in June 2024, short seller Culper Research discovered.

A US bill was indeed introduced to shut that export gap. That measure passed the US House in January under a press release titled Legislation to Limit Adversaries' Remote Access to Critical Technology.

Megaspeed also worked the calendar to its benefit. The firm finalised a large Nvidia equipment purchase during six vital weeks before May 15, 2025.

That was the deadline when a Joe Biden-era regulation would have demanded permits for AI chip exports to Southeast Asia.

As an interesting aside, Donald Trump surprisingly scrapped that rule after he assumed office in January 2025 and before it could take effect. Trump has been a firm backer of Jensen Huang, including a repeated endorsement after his romantic affair with his Chinese spy lover went public the previous day.

For its side, Nvidia states its own investigation has turned up no proof of diversion. The company asserts it has complied with all US export rules at all times.

It also maintains it addresses diversion claims quickly "to help government and our partners halt any would-be smugglers" of its hardware.

Megaspeed likewise denies any misconduct, pointing to inspections by US and Malaysian officials as well as by Nvidia itself. Chinese state media has dismissed the Alice Huang spying claims as unfounded.

Nvidia's board has launched its own independent review of Jensen Huang's behaviour. Three US House of Representatives committee members also asked for a briefing on November 18, one day after Nvidia discloses quarterly earnings.