SINGAPORE – Nvidia, which is powering the global artificial intelligence revolution with the chips it makes, is investigating if its chief executive officer, Jensen Huang, was the target of foreign spying.
This comes after October media reports alleged that the Taiwan-born technology maverick had a close relationship with a Chinese businesswoman who passed information to Beijing.
The woman, Alice Huang, is a former executive of Singapore-based cloud computing firm Megaspeed International. She is reportedly being monitored by the United States authorities, who suspected she was helping China evade limits on its ability to access advanced AI chips.
Singapore has traditionally been among Nvidia’s top four markets in billable revenue. How close are Nvidia’s ties to Singapore? The Straits Times answers this and more.
1. How important is Singapore to Nvidia’s business?
Nvidia’s financial reports over the past three years revealed that Singapore was among its top global markets by revenue. But no Singapore revenue breakdown has been given since the middle of 2025.
Singapore accounted for 22% of Nvidia’s total revenue at close to US$10.2 billion (S$13 billion) for the quarter that ended on July 27, 2025. It was the most recent and last known quarterly revenue breakdown for Singapore.
The US is Nvidia’s largest market, accounting for about 50% of total revenue at around US$23.5 billion in that quarter.
In the financial year that ended on Jan 26, 2025, Singapore was also the No. 2 contributor to Nvidia’s total revenue, accounting for 18% of it at nearly US$23.7 billion. The US contributed 47% of total revenue at almost US$61.3 billion.
2. Why is a small country like Singapore buying so many AI chips?
Nvidia had explained that customers used Singapore to “centralise invoicing”, while its products were almost always shipped elsewhere.
For instance, for the quarter that ended on July 27, 2025, over 99% of Nvidia’s revenue billed to Singapore from selling export-controlled data centre products, including AI chips, was for orders from US-based customers.
Earlier in January 2025, it was reported that the US was investigating if Chinese AI firm DeepSeek got Nvidia AI chips through countries such as Singapore.
In February 2025, the then Ministry of Trade and Industry responded to these allegations, citing Nvidia as saying many of its customers “use their business entities in Singapore to purchase chips for products destined for the US and other Western countries”.
“We expect US companies, like Nvidia, to comply with US export controls and our domestic legislation,” the ministry said, adding that Singapore would act decisively and firmly against individuals and companies that flout the rules.
Nvidia had also stated that there was no reason to believe that DeepSeek obtained any export-controlled products from Singapore.
In October 2025, it was reported that the US was investigating whether Singapore’s Megaspeed was involved in helping Chinese tech firms sidestep US export controls to obtain restricted Nvidia AI chips.
3. What ties and partnerships does Nvidia have in Singapore?
Nvidia has many business and research dealings with organisations in Singapore.
In March 2026, Singtel unit NCS said it was integrating NCS’ AI platforms with Nvidia’s AI enterprise software so highly regulated organisations can deploy AI agents – bots which can take actions with minimal human supervision – with the necessary safeguards. These include ensuring that sensitive operational data is protected.
The US tech firm said in September 2026 that Sea – which owns e-commerce platform Shopee, financial services arm Monee and gaming platform Garena – was adopting an Nvidia platform to scale the use of AI across its platforms. Sea has used AI to let sellers create product listings, boost fraud detection and build in-game companions that respond to players in real time.
The US tech giant has tie-ups with the Singapore Government as well. In September, Singapore’s Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX) said it was the first organisation in the country to deploy Nvidia’s latest GB300 chip.
The GB300 chips provide massive computing power so HTX can train much smarter AI to process text, video and audio at once and control robots at scale without fear of security being compromised. This builds on HTX’s earlier partnership with Nvidia.
Many institutes of higher learning here work with Nvidia on research. In February 2026, the Singapore University of Technology and Design worked with Nvidia and other partners to show how robots and autonomous vehicles can distribute their “thinking” across the device and the cloud.
The Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and Nvidia jointly established in 2024 a research centre called the SIT x Nvidia AI Centre that has allowed businesses from manufacturing and transport to healthcare sectors develop and test solutions using AI.
The centre also launched a new training initiative in October 2025 to help fresh graduates and mid-career professionals become AI practitioners.
4. How will current or future chip orders from Singapore be affected?
The outlook is unclear. Taiwan’s Commercial Times cited supply chain rumours suggesting that Nvidia has plans to slow chip orders. It is not clear if this is linked to the ongoing probe into its chief.
Reuters reported analysts as saying that a prolonged investigation could delay Nvidia’s investment decisions or product launches, affecting the broader semiconductor industry.
In the near term, Nvidia’s competitors like Advanced Micro Devices could gain attention, Ryu Young-ho, a senior analyst at NH Investment & Securities, told Reuters. But replacing Nvidia’s products would be tough, he said.
5. What are Nividia’s ties to Megaspeed?
Megaspeed is under probe in Singapore and the US over possible breaches of export laws involving advanced Nvidia AI chips.
It was first incorporated in 2015 as 7Road International, a Chinese gaming company with ties to state-backed investors.
Records from the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority show that Megaspeed is still operating at its Collyer Quay office.
In February 2024, it incorporated Speedmatrix with two addresses in Johor and Singaporean Tan Yong Pong as its director. According to The New York Times, Speedmatrix was used to receive shipments of Nvidia chips from the US.
Tan became Megaspeed’s director in November 2023, shortly after he incorporated Swiftdata, which owns Megaspeed.
When 7Road was renamed Megaspeed in March 2023, it was owned by Huang Le Limited and led by Huang Le, who also goes by the name Alice. The ownership was later transferred to Tan’s Swiftdata in Nov 2023.
Alice was seen at the Computex 2024 party in Taipei, where Nvidia’s chief met his top clients. The two Huangs are not related despite sharing the same surname.
On Oct 29, The New York Times reported that Alice, a Chinese citizen, was recruited by Beijing to collect intelligence on the Nvidia chief.
He later admitted in a message to employees that he had been unfaithful to his wife and took “full responsibility” for his actions. Nvidia said its CEO was committed to continuing to lead the company without interruption.
6. Is Megaspeed being investigated by the Singapore authorities?
The Singapore Police Force told The Wall Street Journal on Oct 30 that Megaspeed is being investigated and were unable to comment further on the case for now.
The police said that while Singapore does not implement unilateral export controls imposed by foreign jurisdictions, the country “does not condone businesses deliberately using their association with Singapore to circumvent or violate other countries’ export controls”.
The police added that firm action would be taken against those engaged in fraudulent and dishonest practices.
Singapore has charged four people and four companies in court between February 2025 and July 2026 for committing fraud on suppliers of servers, the police added. They face charges that carry jail terms of up to 20 years each.
The Wall Street Journal’s report then cited sources that Singapore officials were concerned with Alice’s close ties to the Nvidia chief, or her being an alleged Chinese intelligence source, and had separately investigated her ties to China.
Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs clarified on Oct 31 that neither the Singapore Government nor its officials had said that, adding that “there were no such investigations conducted in respect of Alice Huang”.