# Megaspeed **Megaspeed** is a Singapore-based company that rents out AI computing power from data centers in Malaysia and Indonesia. It did not exist under that name before 2023. Within two years it had become the largest buyer of [[NVIDIA]] chips in Southeast Asia, and U.S. officials suspect some of what it bought ended up in [[China]], which American export rules are meant to prevent. Megaspeed denies breaking any law. In late 2026 the company moved from the trade pages to the front pages. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that one of its founding executives, [[Alice Huang]], was working for China's spy service, the [[MSS]], and had built a close personal relationship with NVIDIA's chief executive, [[Jensen Huang]]. The fallout ended with his resignation on November 12, 2026. That story is told in full at [[Jensen Huang Espionage Allegations 2026]]; this page covers the company. > [!summary] At a glance > - **What it is:** A "neocloud": a company that buys large numbers of AI chips and rents their computing power to customers, including Chinese firms such as [[Alibaba]]. > - **Why it matters:** Renting computing power to Chinese companies from outside China is legal under U.S. rules. Shipping the chips themselves into China is not. Megaspeed sits exactly on that line, and the U.S. government has spent two years trying to find out which side of it the company is on. > - **Where it stands (Nov. 12, 2026):** The Justice Department is reported to be running a criminal inquiry. Singapore police have confirmed their own investigation. No charges have been announced, and the company says every inspection has found its chips where they were supposed to be. ## Where it came from Megaspeed began as the overseas arm of 7Road, a Chinese video-game and cloud-computing company with ties to state-backed investors. In 2023, a few months after the United States first restricted sales of advanced AI chips to China, 7Road split that Singapore operation off and it took the Megaspeed name. Singapore corporate filings list Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen also known as Huang Le, as its managing director for its first months. Ownership then passed through a chain of holding companies. Reporting by the *[[New York Times]]* and others traced the business from 7Road to a British Virgin Islands company controlled by Alice Huang, and then, in November 2023, to a Singapore company owned by Tan Yong Pong, a Singaporean who became chief executive. (Sen. Tom Cotton's 2025 letter names the chief executive as James Tan, a Singaporean living in Shanghai.) ## The chips Megaspeed's buying was out of all proportion to its age and staff. Its Malaysian affiliate, Speedmatrix, then bought at least **$4.8 billion** worth of AI equipment containing NVIDIA chips between June 2024 and February 2026, according to trade records cited by the *New York Times*. Its customers included Chinese companies, among them [[Alibaba]]. Two details drew investigators in. In late 2024, U.S. Commerce Department officials visiting a Megaspeed data center in Malaysia found large amounts of NVIDIA equipment still sealed in its boxes, which is not what a working data center looks like. And the company's offices in Singapore and Malaysia were nearly empty; the *Times* reported that the few staff there rarely saw executives, most of whom were based in China. Once Malaysia and Singapore began cracking down on chip smuggling in mid-2025, Megaspeed stopped ordering from NVIDIA. NVIDIA has said it inspected Megaspeed's sites several times and found its chips accounted for, and that the company's cloud service is permitted under export rules. Megaspeed says inspections by NVIDIA, Malaysian authorities and the Commerce Department found no violations. ## The investigations - **Congress, October 2025.** After the *New York Times* published its investigation on October 9, 2025, Sen. [[Tom Cotton]] wrote to Commerce Secretary [[Howard Lutnick]] on October 13 asking him to investigate Megaspeed as a "spin-off of Chinese government-owned" 7Road and to look at its ties to U.S. chip companies. - **Singapore.** Singapore police told the *Times* in 2025 that they were investigating the company for possible breaches of local law. Alice Huang was questioned by Singaporean authorities. - **Commerce, then Justice.** The *Times* reported in November 2026 that investigators at the [[Department of Commerce]] spent months on the case before it stopped. In August 2025, NVIDIA's general counsel, Tim Teter, emailed the agents asking to discuss it, and said that Jeff Kessler, a senior Commerce official who reports to Lutnick, had given NVIDIA permission to reach out. The agents declined to meet. Worried that the contact could compromise the case, the [[Department of Justice]] asked Commerce to pause and took it over as a criminal inquiry, which is still open. Commerce says it handled the case by the book and that Kessler did not direct investigators to share anything with NVIDIA; NVIDIA says it talks to officials to give information and seek guidance. ## Why it's on the map Megaspeed is a test of whether U.S. chip export controls work. The rules focus on where a chip is physically shipped, not on who ends up using it, and a two-year-old company that can buy billions of dollars of hardware, run it from near-empty offices, and serve customers in China from next door is exactly the gap critics of the rules have warned about (see [[GPU Export Controls]]). It is also a case study in access: the company's supplier was run by the executive with the closest personal relationship to the president of any chip maker, and the supplier's own lawyer contacted the agents investigating its customer. ## Watch - Whether the Justice Department files charges against Megaspeed or anyone connected to it - What Singapore's police investigation concludes - Whether NVIDIA's board investigation, which began on November 8, 2026, reports on Megaspeed's purchases as well as on Jensen Huang ## See Also - [[Jensen Huang Espionage Allegations 2026]] — the intelligence memo, the affair and the resignation - [[Alice Huang]] — the executive at the center of it - [[NVIDIA]] · [[Jensen Huang]] - [[GPU Export Controls]] · [[Chip Export Controls]] — the rules Megaspeed is suspected of getting around - [[Alibaba]] — a reported customer - [[Singapore]] · [[China]] - [[Tom Cotton]] · [[Howard Lutnick]] — the first congressional demand and the department it went to