Federal agents spent months investigating whether a Singapore company had shipped restricted Nvidia chips into China before the Justice Department ordered Commerce to pause the inquiry and took over the case itself, according to a New York Times report cited by RedState. Justice is now running a criminal investigation into the company, which is tied to a former executive U.S. officials believe spied for China and who has personal ties to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
The Singapore firm, Megaspeed, had imported billions of dollars in Nvidia equipment into Malaysia to build data centers across Southeast Asia for customers including Alibaba. Serving Chinese clients from Malaysian data centers is not against the law. The question investigators were chasing was diversion — whether restricted chips were illegally funneled into China itself.
Nvidia had pushed to talk directly with a Commerce agent working the case. When agents refused the request in August 2025, Nvidia general counsel Tim Teter wrote back saying he understood from Jeff Kessler — who reports to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — that Nvidia had clearance to speak with the agents. Agents forwarded the emails to Kessler, who replied hours later telling them to handle the case by the book, according to a Commerce official. That official said Kessler gave agents no instructions on what to tell Nvidia, but some officials believed the contact broke with standard procedure and could jeopardize the case.
Justice does not comment on ongoing investigations. Commerce maintains agents handled the matter properly. Nvidia spokesman John Rizzo said the company routinely shares field information with federal officials, answers their questions and requests guidance when needed. Nvidia says it investigated the Megaspeed shipments in 2025 and concluded claims that chips reached China were false. The company also said there was nothing “unusual or unexpected” about Huang’s dealings with Alice Huang.
Megaspeed says inspections by Nvidia and by U.S. and Malaysian authorities found no evidence chips were illegally diverted.
The Huang Connection
Jensen Huang has acknowledged an affair. The New York Times identified the woman as Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive, and reported that U.S. officials assessed she had worked for Chinese intelligence. Reuters, which describes her as a former executive, said it could not independently confirm the intelligence allegations.
On Sunday, Nvidia’s board announced independent directors would investigate the matter with outside legal help. The company said it had “no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised,” but added that the “Board’s inquiry will examine all available information.”
Congress Wants Answers
Three Republican House committee chairmen — Brian Mast (FL-21), John Moolenaar (MI-02) and Rick Crawford (AR-01) — have asked Huang to appear for a closed-door briefing on November 18 and to confirm his attendance by November 11.
President Trump said last week he “didn’t know about the specific thing” and that he wants Huang to remain as an adviser unless contrary information surfaces.
The basic facts here aren’t in dispute: billions of dollars in American chip technology moved through a Malaysian middleman with personal ties to Nvidia’s own CEO, to a company now under criminal investigation, while Commerce’s own agents were ordered to stand down. Congress should put the agents who worked the case in the same room as Huang and ask them directly whether equipment kept moving after Justice told them to stop looking. A shipment has a destination on paper. Someone can check whether it got there.
