Singapore-based Megaspeed arranged orders for nearly $12 billion of Nvidia processors on behalf of Chinese companies, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The company is linked to Alice Huang, whose past relationship with Nvidia’s longtime chief Jensen Huang formed part of the scandal that preceded his departure. The records cover orders for hundreds of thousands of artificial intelligence chips, but do not establish how many were delivered. Megaspeed disputes the report and has commissioned an independent investigation.
The documents described by the WSJ cover the period from March 2024 to June 2025. They do not identify the origin of the processors or show what proportion of the orders was fulfilled. During that period, Washington restricted exports of the most advanced AI chips to China, partly because of their potential military applications.
Megaspeed’s links to Alice Huang
Alice Huang became Megaspeed’s controlling shareholder in March 2023.
According to the WSJ, her contacts with Nvidia’s management helped Megaspeed establish a business relationship with the chipmaker. The company joined Nvidia’s programme for cloud service providers, giving it access to hardware for which demand significantly exceeded production capacity.
One of Megaspeed’s customers was Alibaba, the Chinese technology group developing its own artificial intelligence models.
Megaspeed disputes the allegations
On 15 November, Megaspeed said Alice Huang had formally left the company on 30 August 2025 and no longer held any role there.
The company challenged the reporting about its business, hardware deliveries and international operations. In a statement cited by Reuters, it said it complied with applicable laws, including US export restrictions.
Megaspeed has appointed external lawyers to conduct an internal investigation. It also said it would audit the graphics processing units it holds and review records covering their purchase and use.
US authorities had previously examined whether Megaspeed helped Chinese customers obtain restricted Nvidia processors. No finding confirming that the company breached those rules has been announced.
Two routes give Chinese companies access to Nvidia chips
The WSJ investigation describes two ways in which Chinese companies obtain access to Nvidia processors despite US restrictions.
The first involves smuggling hardware through intermediaries operating in other countries. The processors are then moved to data centres in China, where they are used to train and run artificial intelligence models.
The second involves renting computing capacity at overseas data centres equipped with Nvidia processors. The hardware remains abroad while Chinese customers use it remotely. Whether such services are lawful depends on the applicable rules and licence conditions.
Malaysia has attracted more than $34 billion in data-centre investment
Malaysia has become one of Southeast Asia’s leading locations for new data centres. According to figures cited by the WSJ, the country has attracted more than $34 billion of investment in the sector.
Singapore also plays a major role, hosting companies involved in processor procurement, infrastructure financing and computing-capacity rental.
The WSJ highlighted Singapore-based Aolani Cloud, which works with Nvidia. The newspaper said its investors helped finance about $2.5 billion of equipment installed in Malaysia. Its main customer is ByteDance, the owner of TikTok.
Additional data centres are being built in Senawang, near Kuala Lumpur. Alibaba also plans to use infrastructure developed by Vena Group, which is backed by BlackRock.
US prepares new AI-chip export restrictions
According to the WSJ, the US Department of Commerce is working on rules that could subject Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia to additional export restrictions.
The proposed rules would require licences to export the most advanced processors, including Nvidia Blackwell chips. Licence conditions could also limit the provision of their computing capacity to Chinese customers. As of 15 November 2026, the final rules had not been announced.
Existing regulations have focused primarily on where the hardware is shipped. The new rules could give greater weight to who ultimately uses the processors.
For data-centre operators, that would mean more extensive checks on customers and the terms under which services are provided. Some operators could be required to restrict business with Chinese customers.
Malaysian authorities said they were examining Megaspeed and its local entity over the possible re-export of AI processors. They also pledged action to prevent the country from being used to circumvent trade restrictions.
Nvidia warns that export controls could strengthen Huawei
Nvidia says it works to prevent the illegal trade in its processors. At the same time, the company has long argued that overly broad export restrictions could weaken US chipmakers.
Jensen Huang defended that position, arguing that restricting chip sales to China could accelerate the development of competing products, particularly processors made by Huawei.
China remains an important market for Nvidia. According to figures cited by the WSJ, the company generated $12.4 billion of revenue there in the six months ended 26 July 2026, equivalent to about 7% of its global sales.
Those figures do not directly include every purchase made by overseas data centres that later rent computing capacity to Chinese customers.
Sources
- The Wall Street Journal, “How Jensen Huang Built the Backdoor Route That Keeps Beijing in the AI Race,” 15 November 2026
- To Vima, authorised WSJ partner publication
- Reuters, “Megaspeed says Alice Huang left company in August 2025,” 15 November 2026
- Reuters, “Former Nvidia CEO Huang had a relationship with a second employee, sources say,” 12 November 2026
