Six months before the "spy scandal" at NVIDIA came to light, a short-selling firm headquartered in New York, Culper Research, had already raised doubts about the unusually close relationship between NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Alice Huang. Alice Huang is a senior executive at Megaspeed, a company based in Singapore that purchases NVIDIA chips. She is currently suspected of being a Chinese spy.

Jensen Huang admitted to having an extramarital affair over the weekend, and NVIDIA has now launched a formal investigation into his relationship with Alice Huang. Alice Huang shares the same surname as Jensen Huang, but they are not related by blood. American intelligence officials believe that she was recruited by the Chinese government with the purpose of collecting information about Jensen Huang and influencing his stance on the export control issues regarding NVIDIA's advanced AI chips in the United States.

The report released by Culper on May 13 has once again drawn attention, as the institution had already noticed the relationship between Jensen Huang and Alice Huang while investigating the connections between Megaspeed and NVIDIA at that time.

Specifically, the report states that the relationship between these two executives is "uncomfortably close," and it mentions that Jensen Huang has been seen multiple times attending parties and social events with Alice Huang. The report even claims that some NVIDIA employees suspect whether there is a "special relationship" between the two individuals.

It is also speculated that the Chinese business lost by NVIDIA due to export controls may have been re-channelled through Southeast Asia; and Megaspeed, as a major chip buyer in the region, may have obtained secret financing from Chinese technology giant Alibaba through shell companies. The institution, citing financial records, stated that the total liabilities and shareholders' equity of Megaspeed increased from $33 million at the end of 2023 to approximately $3 billion by the end of 2024, with a large portion of this coming from refundable deposits from unnamed sources.

The British "Financial Times" reported on Monday that documents showed Alibaba had provided loans to Megaspeed through its subsidiaries.

Culper is a short-selling firm, therefore it is possible that they may gain economic benefits from making these allegations; moreover, the claims regarding the possible illegal transfer of chips have not yet been independently verified. Their report is still available online and was published on the X platform in May.