Short seller flagged Nvidia CEO's closeness to alleged Chinese spy 6 months ago, now affair is public

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has accepted having an affair with alleged Chinese spy Alice Huang. But months before reports about this relationship emerged, a US short seller had connected the dots.

In Short

• Jensen Huang confesses affair with alleged Chinese spy Alice Huang
• US short seller Culper Research first spotted connections in May 2026
• Short seller had warned Huang was “uncomfortably close” to Alice

It is a rough day for Nvidia and its CEO Jensen Huang. After media reports surfaced linking Jensen Huang to alleged Chinese spy Alice Huang, the Nvidia chief has confessed his affair. But as it turns out, a US short seller was able to connect the dots and spot something between Jensen and Alice months ago.

In May this year, US short seller Culper Research published a report, “NVIDIA (NVDA): The China Problem.” While the report did not allege an affair or attempt of espionage, the firm described Jensen Huang’s relationship with Alice as “uncomfortably close.”

Alice Huang is a former executive at Singapore’s Megaspeed, which buys computing resources such as advanced chips and then sells compute to clients. Its clients reportedly included Chinese giant Alibaba. Though US intelligence agencies believe that Alice may have managed to transfer confidential data from Jensen to Beijing.

The report came as Culper Research announced plans to “short” Nvidia stocks. Shorting refers to betting against a company's stock, expecting the price to fall down within a certain time period.

What did the short seller find?

In its report, Culper highlighted two public sightings of Jensen Huang and Alice Huang. The two were first photographed together in Taipei around Computex in June 2024. Nearly a year later, in May 2025, they were filmed dining in Taiwan with a Hong Kong executive, weeks after the US tightened trade restrictions on China. The report claimed that during the second sighting, Alice was reluctant to be seen with Jensen Huang in public, likely due to stricter US restrictions on China.

As per the report, while the short seller did not find any evidence of an affair, it did find the relationship “uncomfortably close.”

The Financial Times later reported that an intelligence-based memo said the two had been romantically involved and that she had been tasked with encouraging him to advocate looser export restrictions. The reporting did not establish that Jensen Huang knew of any alleged intelligence activity. Beijing denied that Alice Huang was an intelligence asset.

Big transactions at Singapore firm

The report focused on Megaspeed, whose Singapore balance sheet rose from about $33 million at the end of 2023 to about $3 billion a year later, largely because of $2.9 billion in refundable deposits from an unnamed source. A subsidiary, Speedmatrix, pledged its assets to Apex Enterprise Solutions in Singapore, whose ultimate parent was identified in filings as Alibaba Group. The report inferred that Alibaba-linked funds may have moved through Apex and Megaspeed to finance purchases of Nvidia-powered servers, but it did not document such a transfer.

A current Megaspeed employee told Culper that Alice Huang remained effectively “our boss” despite reports that she had left the company. The employee claimed Jensen Huang visited Megaspeed-linked data centres every few months and that Alibaba representatives appeared around each visit. A former Nvidia employee said colleagues had wondered whether Megaspeed had a special relationship with the Nvidia chief.

Culper’s broader case was that Chinese demand continued to drive more than 20 per cent of Nvidia’s FY2026 compute revenue after the company said its China data-centre business had fallen to zero following restrictions imposed in April 2025. It alleged that demand was routed through Southeast Asian intermediaries and illegal diversion, while Nvidia’s method of reporting revenue by customers’ headquarters obscured where equipment ultimately went.

Trade records cited by Culper showed that Speedmatrix imported $4.6 billion of products between December 2024 and January 2026, including $4 billion from Nvidia partner Aivres. Another Nvidia partner, Giga Computing, shipped $511 million of equipment, largely to Speedmatrix and Novagate Cloud, which Culper described as an apparent Megaspeed offshoot.

Jensen Huang comes clean, apologies for affair

While the short seller disclosed concerns over Jensen and Alice publicly six months ago, US intelligence agencies had been investigating the connection for months. It is said that US President Donald Trump was first notified nearly a year ago.

After reports surfaced, Jensen Huang confessed the affair in a memo to employees. “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children,” he wrote. “There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry.” The Nvidia chief said he would cooperate with the investigation and remained committed to protecting Nvidia and supporting American national security. The Nvidia board said it had no reason to believe that national security or company secrets had been compromised and expressed confidence in Huang.

Three Republican committee chairs in the US House requested a closed-door briefing with Huang for November 18. US President Donald Trump defended Huang as a “fine person.”

- Ends