By Martin Abbugao with Taryn Ng in Johor, Isabelle Leong in Kuala Lumpur, Luna Lin in Beijing and Sammy Heung in Hong KongSingaporeAFP
Singapore-based tech group Megaspeed dealt in billions of {dollars}’ value of the world’s most superior AI chips, however its workplace was an empty shell when AFP visited, its employees seemingly vanished lengthy earlier than claims of espionage landed at their door.
Megaspeed’s former director Alice Huang was this week outed as an alleged Chinese language spy, accused of getting an affair with Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang whereas digging up firm secrets and techniques for Beijing.
Particulars about Alice Huang’s life are imprecise, making it virtually not possible to pin down the place she lives, the place she works, or when she was born.
However her affect undoubtedly spreads far and vast, from the nondescript Singapore workplace, to hulking information centres in Southeast Asia, to the gleaming boardrooms of Silicon Valley.
Her connection to cloud computing agency Megaspeed sits on the centre of the scandal.
Megaspeed touts itself as an organization on the coronary heart of the AI revolution, utilizing Nvidia’s superior silicon chips to energy high-performance computing inside huge information centres.
However it’s also beneath investigation for serving a murkier function.
Beneath the guise of shopping for laptop {hardware} for its Southeast Asia information hubs, Megaspeed has allegedly helped Beijing skirt commerce restrictions by sending Nvidia chips into China.
Beijing has denied allegations of spying, and Megaspeed mentioned it was investigating if it had complied with export controls on the delicate chips.
At Megaspeed’s workplace within the coronary heart of the Singapore enterprise district, no employees might be seen behind its locked glass doorways. Neighbours instructed AFP they’d not seen anybody come or go for the previous few months.
Likewise in a mall at a newly developed neighbourhood in Johor, the Malaysian area a bridge away from Singapore, no workers had been round in subsidiary Speedmatrix’s workplace.
Singapore police opened an investigation in February 2025 into Megaspeed and a number of other different firms suspected of circumventing or violating export controls.
Alice Huang was interviewed as a part of Singapore’s probe.
Though no costs had been laid, she was barred from the city-state in February 2026 for offering inaccurate data to “downplay her position in Megaspeed”, Singapore’s house ministry mentioned.
– Explosive progress –
Company information present Huang’s direct involvement within the beginning of Megaspeed.
An organization linked to her acquired the Singapore arm of Chinese language online game developer 7Road Worldwide in early 2023, the information confirmed.
Nearly instantly, the 7Road identify was ditched and altered to Megaspeed Worldwide.
Huang was listed as a Megaspeed director for lower than a 12 months, taking the position between March and November 2023.
Her arrival coincided with a drastic change in fortunes, as Megaspeed pivoted from a little-known online game maker to considered one of Asia’s largest patrons of Nvidia chips.
Inside 12 months, Megaspeed’s income jumped from $0 to virtually US$300 million, in line with firm accounts filed in 2024.
Megaspeed — which described itself as a “cloud internet hosting providers supplier” — noticed the worth of its property skyrocket from $32 million to virtually $3 billion over the identical interval.
Simply considered one of Nvidia’s superior AI laptop chips can price tens of 1000’s of {dollars}.
Over two years, Megaspeed reportedly traded in upwards of $4 billion value of Nvidia chips.
A monetary path weaving by way of Singapore, Malaysia and the Cayman Islands suggests Megaspeed’s enterprise could have been boosted by a connection to Chinese language tech large Alibaba.
Megaspeed has a Malaysian subsidiary that struck a deal in 2024 pledging property to Apex Enterprise Options in Singapore as safety in case of contractual breaches.
Apex is linked by way of a dad or mum firm to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, a agency registered within the Cayman Islands, Singapore company information exhibits.
By that point, Huang was not registered as a director at Megaspeed.
However Singapore authorities mentioned she remained considered one of Megaspeed’s “key controllers”.
Megaspeed’s final holding firm is a Singapore agency known as Swiftdata.
Singapore businessman Tan Yong Pong — who has beforehand run printing and graphic design firms — is a director of each Megaspeed and Swiftdata.
Nobody answered when AFP visited Tan’s registered deal with in jap Singapore, though canine might be heard barking behind the door.
“They’re pleasant. I often stumble upon the woman on the carry touchdown when she’s strolling her canine,” an aged neighbour instructed AFP. “However we’ve got not seen them for months.”
– Awkward questions –
In June 2025, US investigators turned up at Megaspeed to hold out a “post-shipment verification”, with Huang current, in line with Singapore’s house ministry, including that it was the primary time it discovered about Washington’s probe.
That very same day, Huang was interviewed by Singapore police who impounded her passport.
By then, she and Nvidia boss Jensen Huang had already been noticed collectively in public.
In considered one of their early outings collectively, they had been seen mingling at an afterparty following the Computex commerce present in Taiwan originally of 2024.
Trump was briefed on the intelligence findings about their relationship nicely earlier than it exploded right into a public scandal, however mentioned Sunday he didn’t remorse not performing on it.
“No, I do not suppose so. I feel — , he is an honorable man,” Trump mentioned.
However the scandal has sparked nationwide safety fears.
China and the USA are combating for supremacy in synthetic intelligence, and Nvidia’s market-leading merchandise have grow to be a significant level of competition.
Nvidia controls an estimated 90 p.c of the marketplace for the chips used to coach and run AI fashions, and the US imposed guidelines in 2022 to limit their gross sales to China.
Up to now years, Jensen Huang has emerged because the main tech boss urging Trump to carry these curbs.
In any case, the restrictions seem to have been extensively circumvented.
A Chinese language college tied to the nation’s defence institution was capable of purchase superior Nvidia chips, in line with procurement notices from October and September.
Singapore’s probe into Megaspeed is ongoing. Individually, Malaysia mentioned Friday it’s investigating the corporate’s subsidiary Speedmatrix to find out if chips imported into the nation had been exported to different jurisdictions.
Megaspeed itself mentioned it has retained a US lawfirm to look at its compliance.
“Megaspeed takes its compliance obligations beneath US export management legal guidelines extraordinarily severely,” it mentioned.
– Tangled webs –
Alice Huang sits in the midst of a company net, related to myriad shell firms, funding homes and main Chinese language know-how companies.
Company information filed in Hong Kong record her as a director of Nanjing Lingxing Know-how, which operates the favored T3 experience hailing platform in China.
Different notable buyers in Nanjing Lingxing Know-how embrace Alibaba and Tencent, in addition to state-backed carmakers like China FAW and Dongfeng Motor Group.
A company CV printed by a Chinese language funding agency particulars Huang’s fast ascent by way of the ranks of Asian funding banking.
She served in a senior position at HSBC someday round 2012, the resume claims, earlier than shifting on to stints at CITIC Securities and Shanghai Hexi Funding.
Singapore enterprise filings described her as a Chinese language citizen with a Hong Kong passport.
She was born in China’s landlocked Hunan province, which she left to check media in Hong Kong, HK01 media reported.
A CCTV reporter wrote on Weibo that she labored with Huang on the Chinese language broadcaster, however later deleted the publish.
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