Six months before the Nvidia spy scandal broke into public view, a New York-based short-selling firm, Culper Research, had already flagged concerns about the unusually close relationship between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Alice Huang, an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company that purchases Nvidia chips. She is now suspected of being a Chinese spy. Over the weekend, the Nvidia CEO admitted to an extramarital affair, and the company has since launched a formal investigation into his relationship with Alice Huang (who shares his last name but is not related to him). U.S. intelligence officials believe she was recruited by the Chinese government to gather intelligence on Jensen Huang and to influence his stance on U.S. export controls on advanced AI chips. Culper's May 13 report is now resurfacing because it had picked up on the connection between Jensen Huang and Alice Huang while investigating Megaspeed's ties to Nvidia.

In particular, the report described the relationship between the two executives as "uncomfortably close," noting that the Nvidia CEO was seen partying and socializing with Alice Huang on multiple occasions. The report even claimed that some Nvidia employees wondered whether the two had a "special relationship."

Culper Research also theorized that the China business Nvidia lost to export controls had been rerouted through Southeast Asia, and that Megaspeed, a major chip buyer in the region, was secretly financed by Chinese tech giant Alibaba through shell companies. It pointed to financial records showing that Megaspeed's total liabilities and equity had grown from $33 million at the end of 2023 to around $3 billion by the end of 2024, much of it in the form of refundable deposits from an unidentified source. The Financial Times reported Monday that documents show Alibaba lent money to Megaspeed through subsidiaries. As a short seller, Culper stood to benefit financially from making these allegations, and the claims about possible illegal chip diversion have not been independently verified. Its report is available on the web and was posted to X back in May.