How Megaspeed Allegedly Moved Nvidia Chips Through Singapore and Malaysia as Board Weighs Jensen Huang's Fate

SINGAPORE — As Nvidia Corp.'s board weighs whether to remove Chief Executive Jensen Huang, attention is turning to the little-known Singapore company at the center of the scandal. U.S. officials suspect the firm of helping advanced American AI chips reach China.

Megaspeed International, a cloud computing provider, became one of Nvidia's biggest foreign customers in just a few years. It is now under scrutiny from authorities in the United States and Singapore over whether chips it bought ended up with Chinese companies in violation of U.S. export controls.

Megaspeed has denied wrongdoing.

Board decision still pending

Nvidia's board met late Wednesday to decide whether to remove Huang, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. As of Thursday morning, the company had announced no decision.

Nvidia shares fell about 6% in premarket trading Thursday as investors waited for news.

"The market is starting to price Nvidia without its founder as the likely outcome, not a tail risk," Armina Rosenberg of Minotaur Capital, an Nvidia shareholder, told Reuters.

Under Nvidia's bylaws, a majority of its 11 directors can remove Huang "with or without cause." Removing him as CEO would not automatically remove him from the board. Nvidia has no board chair; its lead independent director is Stephen Neal, chairman emeritus of law firm Cooley.

From gaming to AI chips

Megaspeed began as a spinoff of a Chinese gaming company in 2023. That same year, it became an official Nvidia cloud computing partner.

Over the past three years, Megaspeed bought nearly $5 billion worth of Nvidia AI chips and advanced hardware, The New York Times first reported. According to the Times, nearly $2 billion of those chips were installed in data centers in Malaysia and Indonesia that appeared to serve customers in China remotely.

Its Malaysian operations run through a wholly owned subsidiary, Speedmatrix Sdn. Bhd.

Despite its rapid growth, Megaspeed's headquarters in Singapore's Ocean Financial Centre office tower sat practically empty, The Straits Times reported. Questions have also been raised about its offices in Australia and Malaysia, including one located in a shopping mall.

Two routes to restricted chips

Washington bans exports of Nvidia's most advanced chips to China, fearing they could boost Beijing's military and AI capabilities.

Experts say companies like Megaspeed typically offer Chinese clients two ways around the restrictions. The first is renting computing power from chips housed in data centers in Singapore and Malaysia, which is legal under current rules. The second is buying chips through front companies and shipping them to China, which can violate U.S. export controls.

"Chinese firms can access data centers in Singapore and Malaysia — and their computing capacity — without having to import restricted semiconductors," Ja Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, told Fortune.

"But the ease of shipping [chips] through Singapore and Malaysia also makes them attractive for firms and people who wish to circumvent U.S. controls," he said.

Alice Huang's role

Megaspeed's link to the Nvidia scandal runs through Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive. U.S. intelligence officials believe she is a Chinese intelligence asset who formed a close relationship with Jensen Huang. The two are not related.

Huang admitted to being unfaithful to his wife in a memo to Nvidia staff on Nov. 8 but did not name the woman. Nvidia's board launched an independent investigation into whether he was the target of a foreign intelligence effort.

Beijing has called the spying allegations unsubstantiated.

Investigations widen

Singapore police investigated Megaspeed in 2025 for alleged breaches of local laws, though few details of that probe have emerged.

A U.S. Commerce Department investigation into Megaspeed has been transferred to the Justice Department, according to Malaysiakini. Megaspeed has hired outside legal counsel to conduct an internal investigation, Law.com reported.

Megaspeed said in a statement last December that it had been inspected by a U.S. official, Malaysia's trade ministry and Nvidia, and that no evidence was found of illicit chip transfers or other illegal activity.

Malaysia's Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry has said it has not opened an investigation into the company.

In October 2025, Nvidia said it had visited Megaspeed's operations and found no evidence of chip diversion. Critics say those assurances could become a problem for the company.

Short seller Culper Research flagged Nvidia's alleged exposure to China through intermediaries such as Megaspeed in May. Culper has a short position in Nvidia.

Axios reported that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had delayed a planned crackdown on companies suspected of diverting Nvidia chips to China.

Southeast Asia under pressure

The case has put a spotlight on Southeast Asia's role in the global chip trade. Under U.S. pressure, Malaysia began requiring permits in 2025 for all exports and transfers of Nvidia chips.

Singapore has also prosecuted separate cases involving servers that may have contained restricted Nvidia chips, which were declared bound for Malaysia but may have been diverted elsewhere.

Who could replace Huang?

If the board removes Huang, finding a successor will not be easy. Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has led it for 33 years, with dozens of executives reporting directly to him.

Bloomberg reported that Nvidia is working with an outside firm to explore potential replacements. Analysts have named Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress and Ian Buck, Nvidia's vice president of hyperscale, as leading internal candidates.

Huang also faces pressure from lawmakers, who have asked him to attend a closed-door briefing on Nov. 18 and threatened a subpoena if he refuses. Nvidia is scheduled to report quarterly earnings on Nov. 17.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.