The key facts

  • Jensen Huang left Nvidia on Thursday, admitting to an affair with Alisa Huang of Singapore's Megaspeed
  • Jensen Huang left Nvidia on Thursday, admitting a romance with Alice Huang of Singapore's Megaspeed
  • Megaspeed is suspected of giving Chinese companies backdoor access to Nvidia chips via data centers in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand
  • The investigation in Singapore has lasted nearly two years without charges; the US, according to the authorities, provided insufficient assistance
  • The investigation in Singapore has lasted almost two years without charges; the US, according to the authorities, provided insufficient assistance

Resignation and scandal

On Thursday, Jensen Huang stepped down as head of Nvidia after a board meeting, admitting to an extramarital affair. According to BBC News, the woman was named Alisa Huang, who ran the Singaporean company Megaspeed — a major buyer of Nvidia chips. The scandal drew attention not only to the company founder's personal life, but also to Singapore's role in the global semiconductor trade.

Singapore as a chip hub

For decades, Singapore built a reputation as an open, business-friendly economy with access to both US and Chinese markets, and with the onset of the artificial intelligence boom it became a major hub in the high-end chip trade. Last year, the country was Nvidia's second-largest billing center in the world — nearly a fifth of the manufacturer's revenue — yet less than 1% of that sum corresponded to chips actually imported into Singapore: the island serves as a hub where Asian companies place orders for shipment to other countries. Since 2022, when the US restricted exports of advanced semiconductors to China, American authorities have worried that third countries like Singapore could be used by Chinese companies to circumvent the restrictions.

The Megaspeed case

Megaspeed became the largest buyer of Nvidia chips in Southeast Asia; it is suspected of providing Chinese companies with 'backdoor access' to chips through data centers in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. According to the New York Times, in 2024 American officials visited a Megaspeed data center in Malaysia and saw Nvidia hardware still in boxes, which heightened suspicions of chip resale. According to Bloomberg, last year Megaspeed imported, it seemed, 50,000 more chips than Nvidia could account for; Nvidia later adjusted its figures after inspecting additional warehouses. The company itself maintains that it has always acted lawfully and that government inspections found no violations, stating that it 'welcomes proper scrutiny from the government' and is ready to cooperate constructively with US authorities.

The investigation and its limits

Singaporean authorities said on Thursday that since February 2025 they have been checking whether Megaspeed and other companies made false declarations about servers purchased and exported through Singapore: the companies claimed the equipment was being sent to Malaysia, but authorities suspect other final destinations. Singapore repeatedly requested information from US authorities about Supermicro, which, according to the BBC, supplied servers to Megaspeed, but, the government said, it 'received limited information or assistance.' Alisa Huang was also questioned — not on suspicion of espionage, but over a possible role in the alleged Megaspeed fraud; in the end, authorities found the evidence insufficient and released her in February this year, having held her passport for several months. In nearly two years of investigation, no charges have been brought against Megaspeed or people connected to it, although in the DeepSeek case Singapore earlier charged four companies and five individuals, including Chinese nationals. The investigations in Singapore and the US are ongoing.

'Singapore-washing' and a diplomatic dilemma

BBC checks of corporate registries in China, Hong Kong and Singapore showed that in 2019 Alice Huang sold a gaming company to the Chinese firm 7Road, and in March 2023 7Road's Singapore subsidiary named her executive director — the next day the company changed its name to Megaspeed. Eight months later she transferred the company to a Singaporean, but the analytical group C4ADS assesses that she in fact retained control, and considers Megaspeed's structure an example of 'Singapore-washing', when Chinese companies use the city-state's clean image to conceal their origins. Megaspeed did not respond to BBC requests about the company's and Huang's ties to China and the Chinese government. Experts note that the case narrows the 'rope' on which Singapore balances between the superpowers: political scientist Chong Ja Ian points out that Beijing may ask whose side Singapore is on, while Washington may ask what the city-state's statement shifts the blame onto the US. 'This is the price an open economy is forced to pay — when things go badly, you find yourself caught between two fires,' noted Benjamin Ho of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

The Merlion statue at night, juxtaposed against the skyscrapers of Singapore's central business districtImage source, Bloomberg via Getty Images
Image caption,

Singapore has painstakingly cultivated a reputation as an open, business-friendly economy

The logo of data center company Megaspeed International is pictured at its office in the Ocean Financial Centre in Singapore on November 10, 2026.Image source, AFP via Getty Images
Image caption,

Megaspeed's office in Singapore

Jensen Huang with a worried expression on his face.Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

Jensen Huang resigned from Nvidia on Thursday following a board meeting

Alice Huang wears a pink dress and smiles at Jensen Huang, who is wearing a black T-shirt and has his back to the cameraImage source, Reuters
Image caption,

Alice Huang, seen here in Taipei with Jensen Huang last year, ran Megaspeed for several months in 2023

Jensen Huang in a black leather jacket, stands against a backdrop of lit up cables and computers, gestures with his hand held forward. He is demonstrating chip technology at an AI conference in San Jose in 2025A split screen of a man in glasses and a black leather jacket on the left and a woman in a maroon headscarf with a microphone in the foreground on the right.Jensen Huang is on stage, looking to the side, and the Nvidia logo is behind him.