The unusual global footprint of Megaspeed International, the Singapore-based company at the center of the market Nvidia The Chinese spying scandal is fueling questions about whether it is a front for the Chinese government.
One of the leaders of Megaspeed is Alice Huang, the woman with whom Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia had an affair and is suspected by American intelligence services of being an asset for Chinese Ministry of State Security. Over the past three years, Megaspeed, formerly a gaming company, has been one of Nvidia’s biggest foreign customers, purchasing nearly $5 billion worth of AI chips and advanced hardware, the New York Times first reported.
And yet Megaspeed’s headquarters was virtually empty, according to the Straits Times, an English-language newspaper in Singapore. Questions have also been raised about its outposts in Australia and Malaysia.
Reports in recent days revealed that the company had appointed a newspaper vendor as manager of its Australian subsidiary and that one of its offices in Malaysia consisted of a dilapidated storefront outside Kuala Lumpur. Another office in Malaysia was tucked away in a shopping mall.
Megaspeed began as an offshoot of a China-based gaming company and became a juggernaut by gaining access to restricted Nvidia AI computer chips. US investigators say Alice Huang used her industry contacts and a series of front companies to gain access to 240,000 chips banned from export to China. The company is now under investigation in the United States and Singapore for allegedly smuggling these chips into China.
In a statement released Thursday, Megaspeed said it “takes its compliance obligations with U.S. export control laws extremely seriously” and is “committed to working constructively and transparently with the U.S. government.”
President Trump said this week that the FBI is also investigating romantic and business ties between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Alice Huang (who are not related).
Earlier this week, Jensen Huang, who is married, apologized for the matter in a statement to Nvidia employees. The company launched an independent investigation into the caseand an Nvidia shareholder filed a class-action lawsuit Tuesday alleging that Huang concealed a relationship with Alice Huang and misled shareholders about national security concerns raised by that relationship.
Nvidia’s board said Sunday it had no reason to believe company secrets or national security were compromised. “The Board prioritizes the national and economic security of the United States, which is paramount to the interests of NVIDIA and its shareholders,” the statement said.
However, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News on Wednesday that the the board of directors was preparing to oust Jensen Huang, a development first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
China expert Jacqueline Deal said Nvidia’s advanced AI chips could have ended up in China’s military. Deal, an advisor to State Armor, a nonprofit that studies global security threats, told CBS News: “If the allegations are true, who will be fired?” Nvidia has a compliance team that may have completely failed. »
She also questioned the effectiveness of the U.S. Commerce Department, which has jurisdiction over export controls that could have been circumvented, potentially giving China’s military access to the world’s most advanced chips.
Here’s what we know now about Megaspeed:
It is a major Nvidia customer. Megaspeed and its Malaysian subsidiary Speedmatrix have purchased $4.8 billion worth of advanced artificial intelligence equipment and processors from Nvidia over the past three years.
In 2025, Megaspeed International was investigated by Singapore Police for alleged violations of local laws, but no details have been revealed about the investigation, according to The Straits Times.
The business grew rapidly.
“Megaspeed International is a premier business partner of NVIDIA, strategically positioned in the Asia-Pacific region,” according to its LinkedIn profile, which claims to have between 201 and 500 employees. Three years ago, it had between two and ten employees, according to the South China Morning Post.
Megaspeed International did not respond to a request for comment. It released an “official statement” on its website addressing what it called “misleading information” and “incorrect insinuations” accusing it of being involved in illegal chip transfers.
“We want to be absolutely clear over the past six months: our company has been subject to multiple on-site inspections and reviews by key institutions, including the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, Malaysia’s Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry, and NVIDIA,” reads the post, which also appears on the company’s LinkedIn page.
“These extensive investigations have confirmed that there has been no evidence of violations regarding the illicit transfer of chips or illegal activities,” the company said.
But in a statement released Thursday, the company said it had “retained a leading U.S. law firm to…independently verify its export control compliance practices.” Megaspeed welcomes appropriate government scrutiny and is committed to demonstrating through concrete actions that it is operating responsibly, transparently and in accordance with applicable U.S. laws.”
Megaspeed was initially incorporated in 2015 as 7Road International, a subsidiary of a Chinese developer of popular video games and mobile applications based in Shenzhen, China, according to company filings.
Huang Le Limited, a British Virgin Islands shell company, acquired 7Road International in March 2023. Huang Le is the Chinese name of Alice Huang.
The same month, 7Road International was renamed Megaspeed International and Huang became its general manager. The company also launched a subsidiary called Speedmatrix.
In late October 2023, Huang and another Megaspeed director, Cang Yang, resigned from the company after it was bought by a company called Swiftdata, whose director is based in China, documents show.
But it appears Huang is still affiliated with the company. Culper Research, an activist short selling companyreleased a 40-page report on Nvidia in May citing Megaspeed employees saying Huang was still running the company.
The report also raised some concerns about Jensen Huang’s relationship with Megaspeed and Alice Huang, stating: “Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang not only vouched for Megaspeed, but appears to have literally walked alongside Megaspeed every step of the way, while maintaining an uncomfortably close relationship with Megaspeed’s Alice Huang, a Chinese national.”
Megaspeed lists its headquarters address on the seventh floor of the Ocean Financial Center in Singapore, a glass office tower located in Singapore’s central business district.
When The Straits Times and The New York Times visited the Singapore offices around the same time late last year, they found few or no staff working. The Straits Times said the door was locked and The Times found only two people in its office on a working day.
Megaspeed has an Australian branch located on the 10th floor of a commercial and retail tower in the heart of Sydney’s CBD. Forty other businesses are on the same floor and space in the building can be rented for as little as $17 per day, Australian newspaper ABC News reported. Company filings name Shanghai-born Kai Kang, a 29-year-old newspaper salesman, as director, according to Australian media. But Kang’s newsstand is in northern Victoria, more than 400 miles from Sydney. Kang’s father told Australian channel ABC News this week that he had never heard of Megaspeed.
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