U.S. Probes Megaspeed’s $4.8B Nvidia Chip Buys and CEO Contacts

U.S. intelligence agencies conducting electronic surveillance of Alice Huang (also known as Huang Le), a former managing director at Singapore-based data center operator Megaspeed, concluded that she was acting as a Chinese intelligence asset funneling information to Beijing while maintaining direct contact with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, according to a New York Times report published by the San Francisco Examiner, as Wall Street closed out its steepest one-day tech sell-off since June with the Nasdaq dropping 2.9% and Intel plunging 28.6%, NBC Bay Area reported.

Surveillance of Megaspeed Executive and $4.8 Billion in AI Hardware Buys

According to officials briefed on the classified surveillance, U.S. intelligence agencies monitoring Alice Huang — a Chinese citizen who previously worked at Shanghai-based semiconductor investor Hexi Capital before serving as Megaspeed's managing director for its first 8 months — identified Jensen Huang through the formal intelligence unmasking process when communications with an American citizen surfaced. Publicly posted photos also showed Jensen Huang and Alice Huang together at a bar in Taipei, Taiwan, in June 2024 and outside a Taipei business dinner in May 2025.

Roughly a year ago, President Donald Trump was briefed on the intelligence assessment but took no action, and Jensen Huang has not been given a defensive counterintelligence briefing. During Trump's second term, Jensen Huang met with the president at Mar-a-Lago, pledged $500 billion toward U.S. manufacturing, donated at least $20 million to Trump's White House ballroom fund, attended a White House state dinner for Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month, and negotiated an arrangement allowing the U.S. government to take a 25% stake in certain older-generation Nvidia chips approved for sale to China.

Meanwhile, federal investigators have scrutinized Megaspeed's hardware supply chain across Southeast Asia:

• $4.8 Billion in Malaysian Imports: Trade records from ImportGenius show Megaspeed's sister company in Malaysia purchased at least $4.8 billion worth of advanced AI equipment containing Nvidia chips between June 2024 and February 2026, buying hardware from the U.S. subsidiary of Chinese server maker Inspur (whose parent company is on a U.S. blacklist) and renting computing power to Alibaba and other Chinese firms while building a data center on a 53-acre site in Johor, Malaysia.
• Commerce and Justice Department Investigations: A Commerce Department official inspecting Megaspeed's Malaysian facility in late 2024 found Nvidia equipment still packed in boxes; Singaporean authorities questioned and released Alice Huang in 2025; and the Commerce Department transferred its Megaspeed investigation to the U.S. Justice Department this year.
• Company and Diplomatic Responses: Nvidia spokesperson John Rizzo said Nvidia had investigated and debunked claims that Megaspeed smuggled chips to China, adding that Jensen Huang meets with thousands of customer executives annually and shares zero trade secrets or national-security information. Megaspeed stated that its current leadership retained outside counsel to conduct a thorough internal investigation and cooperate with the U.S. government, while Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Chang called the allegations "groundless smears."

Wall Street Tech Sell-Off Sends Nasdaq Down 2.9% and Intel Down 28.6%

In financial markets on Friday, investor anxiety over whether hundreds of billions of dollars in AI infrastructure capital expenditures will generate sufficient returns pushed U.S. equities to their worst session since June, leaving the S&P 500 3.1% below its all-time high after a third consecutive losing week:

• Major Index Closes: The S&P 500 fell 1.8% (140.32 points to 7,580.07), the Nasdaq composite dropped 2.9% (747.73 points to 25,437.00), and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.1% (572.25 points to 51,770.31).
• Semiconductor and Hyperscaler Moves: Intel plunged 28.6% — its sharpest one-day drop since 1974 — after issuing a fourth-quarter profit forecast below expectations as CEO Lip-Bu Tan cited personal-computer market pressures. Nvidia fell 4.2% (acting as the largest single weight on the S&P 500), Amazon declined 1.4% after reporting $42.4 billion in negative free cash flow over the prior 12 months on $94.8 billion in property and equipment spending, and Alphabet extended losses following Thursday's record 12% drop.
• Crypto, Energy, and Bonds: Bitcoin fell below $77,000 (down from over $86,000 earlier in the month) after a $6 billion hack at Binance attributed by a U.S. blockchain intelligence firm to a North Korean unit, pulling Coinbase Global down 10.6% and Strategy (which holds about 4% of total bitcoin supply) down 7.8%. Outside technology, ExxonMobil rose 2.2%, Chevron gained 1.8%, Mondelez International climbed 3.9%, and Colgate-Palmolive added 2.3%, while 10-year U.S. Treasury yields eased from 4.98% to 4.93% (down from over 5.30% earlier in October) and Brent crude oil rose 2.4% to $113.43 per barrel. Overseas, South Korea's Kospi fell 3.5%, Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 2.1%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.5%.