Alice Huang, the Megaspeed founder at the center of the scandal engulfing Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, has returned to China and is now living in Beijing with the knowledge of security officials, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Her whereabouts had been the topic of intense speculation since Jensen Huang admitted to an extramarital affair and Nvidia’s board opened an investigation into allegations that he was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort. It was not immediately clear when or why she traveled to Beijing, or what she is doing there, the people told Bloomberg. Reuters, which also carried the report, said it could not immediately verify it.

What Bloomberg reported

Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, is the founder of Megaspeed International, the Singapore-based company at the heart of the controversy. She founded the company in 2023 after a career in private equity and television, having previously worked at Citic Securities and HSBC, according to Bloomberg.

Attempts to reach Alice Huang were unsuccessful on Thursday, Bloomberg said. Beijing has denied that she was a spy, and China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alice Huang resigned from her roles as a director and managing director of Megaspeed on November 10, according to the New York Times. The same day, her business partner Cang Yang also stepped down from the board, the Times reported.

Megaspeed and the chip pipeline

Megaspeed became the largest buyer of Nvidia’s chips in Southeast Asia, a major route for moving the company’s advanced hardware into China, Bloomberg reported. The company was spun off from 7Road Holdings, one of China’s largest video game companies, just months after the United States imposed sweeping restrictions on shipments of advanced AI chips to China. Days after a sale in November 2023, the firm was designated an official Nvidia Cloud Partner, a status that granted it preferred access to Nvidia chips.

Chart of Megaspeed's Nvidia imports, which have topped $4.6 billion

Megaspeed’s imports of Nvidia products have topped $4.6 billion, according to trade records cited by Bloomberg. Chart: Bloomberg, via The Edge Singapore.

Trade records show that Megaspeed’s imports of Nvidia products have topped $4.6 billion, Bloomberg reported. The New York Times put the figure at about $4.8 billion in purchases since mid-2024. At facilities across Southeast Asia, the company rents Nvidia chips to customers including Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce and AI company, which has denied Washington’s allegations of ties to China’s military and declined to comment on the relationship.

Megaspeed has denied any wrongdoing, no charges linked to the alleged spying have been announced, and no wrongdoing by the company has been established.

Questioned in Singapore

New reporting on Wednesday added detail to the investigation around Alice Huang. The Times reported that she was questioned by the Singaporean authorities last year, and that Nvidia’s general counsel, Tim Teter, raised her detention directly with Jeffrey Kessler, the Commerce Department under-secretary who oversees the Bureau of Industry and Security, which was leading the Megaspeed investigation.

President Donald Trump was personally briefed on the relationship by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Air Force One en route to China in May, according to the Times. Trump was warned about the relationship before Huang joined him on the state visit to Beijing, and Huang was later given a seat at the head table alongside Trump and President Xi Jinping during Xi’s visit to Washington in September.

The scrutiny is also reaching Congress. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons have asked the Trump administration to preserve all documents tied to Nvidia’s chip exports to China and Jensen Huang’s affair, the Wall Street Journal reported. Three Republican committee chairmen have separately requested a closed-door briefing with Jensen Huang on November 18.

The scandal so far

The report that Alice Huang is in Beijing lands in the middle of a fast-moving crisis for Nvidia. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Nvidia’s board is preparing to oust Jensen Huang and was due to meet to determine his future. Bloomberg then reported that the board is working with an outside firm to find a successor and is weighing naming an interim chief executive while the search runs. Nvidia has said that Jensen Huang “is committed to continuing to lead Nvidia as CEO without interruption.”

The Nvidia scandal, by the numbers: $4.6 billion in Megaspeed Nvidia imports, Megaspeed founded in 2023, Alice Huang resigned November 10, Nvidia earnings on November 17

The Nvidia scandal, by the numbers. Graphic: GPTOnline, based on Bloomberg and New York Times reporting.

The board’s investigation, opened on November 8, is examining whether Jensen Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort after U.S. officials concluded that Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive, was recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security to gather information about him. Jensen Huang has acknowledged the affair but has not named Alice Huang or addressed the reported relationship directly. Nvidia has said its contacts with customers were normal business and that it shares no classified information with them.

Shareholders filed a class action against Nvidia in San Jose on November 9, and the company’s shares have fallen sharply since the scandal broke. Nvidia reports earnings on November 17, a date investors are now watching as closely as the board’s decision.

Why it matters

The whereabouts of Alice Huang was one of the central unanswered questions in a scandal that now spans a boardroom fight, a congressional inquiry, a class action and an export-control dispute. Her return to China, with the knowledge of security officials, removes one of the few remaining unknowns about the central figure in the affair, and it underlines how far the story has moved from a personal scandal into a national security case.

The board is deciding the future of the chief executive who built the world’s most valuable company, while the administration is split over how aggressively to police the chip pipeline that Megaspeed allegedly exploited, as GPTOnline reported in its coverage of the Lutnick crackdown dispute.

Sources