Report ties banned Nvidia chips in Shanghai to Alice Huang

A Chinese company founded by Alice Huang, the businesswoman at the center of the scandal engulfing Nvidia, bought smuggled AI chips that were later installed at a Shanghai data center linked to Megaspeed International, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing documents it reviewed. A person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that some of the servers were first sold to Aperia Cloud Services, a Singapore-based official Nvidia Cloud Partner.bloomberg.com

The report is the first direct link between the Huang network and restricted hardware running inside China. Until now, public scrutiny had largely centered on trade flows through Southeast Asia. It also arrives one day after Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia's chief executive, with CFO Colette Kress named interim CEO.investor.nvidia.com

A widening supply trail

Megaspeed is at the center of a U.S. national security probe into whether it helped move billions of dollars of restricted Nvidia chips to China, CNBC reported. The company's assets jumped to about $3 billion in 2024 from $33 million a year earlier. Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, became Megaspeed's controlling shareholder in March 2023, according to corporate records reviewed by Reuters.cnbc.com+1

The Information reported that Huang, her husband and her sister built a network of companies in China and Singapore. That network helped move about 240,000 H100, H200 and A100 chips worth at least $7.5 billion into China, according to Reuters. The network was linked to Shanghai Century Litong, which won preferred cloud partner status with Nvidia in 2023, giving it priority access to chips, Reuters reported.reuters.com

Denials and open questions

Megaspeed has denied illegally transferring chips to China. In a December 2025 statement, it said reviews by the U.S. Commerce Department, Malaysian authorities and Nvidia had found no evidence of violations, CNBC noted. U.S. authorities have not publicly found that Megaspeed broke export rules, according to Reuters. China's foreign ministry has called claims that Huang is tied to Chinese intelligence groundless, Reuters reported.reuters.com+2

Pressure on Nvidia mounts

The resignation followed reports of Jensen Huang's relationship with Alice Huang, whom U.S. officials believe passed information to Beijing, along with a second reported affair with an Nvidia executive, CNN reported. Three House committees have summoned him to a closed-door interview on December 1, and the Senate Banking Committee chair has asked him to testify on December 3. Alice Huang has reportedly returned to Beijing, CNBC said, and many details remain unclear, including what information, if any, was leaked.cnn.com+1