Months before Jensen Huang affair, a short seller bet against Nvidia stock over 'China problem'. He was not the only one with doubts

Months before Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang admitted to an extramarital affair with an alleged Chinese spy, an activist short-selling firm had bet against Nvidia stock over his China links. But 31-year-old Christian Matthew Lamarco, founder of Culper Research, was not the only one outside official circles with such suspicions.

Who is Christian Lamarco, who shorted Nvidia stock before Jensen Huang scandal?

Lamarco, the son of a pastor, founded Culper Research in 2019. The small New York-based firm investigates companies it believes have misrepresented their operations, risks, capital use or accounting.
It is named after the Culper Spy Ring, George Washington's intelligence network during the American Revolutionary War. Lamarco has likened short-selling research to spycraft. Several of Culper's targets, including LifeMD and Tecnoglass, have sued Lamarco for defamation.

What did Culper allege about Nvidia, Jensen Huang and Alice Huang?

On 13 May 2026, when Nvidia stock was near record highs as the world's most valuable company, Culper published a 40-page report titled "NVIDIA (NVDA): The China Problem" and disclosed a short position on the stock. "We are short Nvidia for one reason: the Company has a significant China problem," it said.

Nvidia had said its China business fell to zero after US AI chip export restrictions in April 2025. But Culper argued that more than 20 per cent of Nvidia's fiscal 2026 compute revenue was still driven by China through illegal GPU diversion and South-east Asian intermediaries.

That's where report focused on Singapore-based Megaspeed, where Alice Huang, with whom Jensen had the extramarital affair, worked.

Culper said Megaspeed was Nvidia's largest chip buyer in the region. Megaspeed was already under scrutiny from the US Commerce Department and Singapore authorities over possible diversion. Citing Singapore filings, Culper alleged that Chinese tech giant Alibaba had effectively financed Megaspeed's chip purchases through intermediary structures. It also questioned Megaspeed's finances, noting that its assets had ballooned within a year, largely through deposits from undisclosed sources.

Also read: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang faces lawsuit from shareholders amid investigation into alleged Chinese spy links

The report then focused on Alice Huang. It described an "uncomfortably close relationship" between Jensen Huang and Alice Huang, a Chinese national and Megaspeed executive.

Culper cited their socialising in Taipei in June 2024, around the time of Megaspeed's Alibaba-linked dealings, a May 2025 dinner in Taipei shortly after US export curbs, photographs of the pair and employee comments about a possible "special relationship".

It said Huang had "walked alongside Megaspeed at every step", but stopped short of alleging an affair or espionage.

Lamarco has since suggested Megaspeed is not the only South-east Asian company helping China access Nvidia chips.
Nvidia has said the diversion allegations against Megaspeed were investigated and debunked, and Beijing has dismissed the spying claims as baseless.

Also read: Was Lutnick warned about Nvidia CEO’s Jensen Huang alleged affair with Chinese spy? What we know

The Alice- Jensen affair: Who else saw the ‘swallow’ coming?

There was at least one person outside of official circles who saw this coming, much before even Culper Research.
On 10 October 2025, seven months before Culper's report, X user Byron Wan (@Byron_Wan) posted a thread on Megaspeed's structure, its chip purchases and Alice Huang's proximity to Jensen Huang.

He highlighted the June 2024 evening at a Taipei bar where she sat beside the Nvidia CEO as he held court with major Asian customers.

In a follow-up post that day, he asked outright whether Alice Huang was a "swallow" working for the Chinese Communist Party. "Swallow" is Chinese slang for a female agent used in honeytrap espionage.

Wan also noted that Megaspeed was a spin-off of Chinese firm 7Road, which has state links, that it had bought Nvidia chips in large volumes, and that Alice Huang had worked as a TV reporter for Chinese state media and as a private banker.

When The New York Times reported on 29 October 2026 that US officials considered Alice Huang a Chinese intelligence asset close to Jensen Huang, Wan reposted his thread, saying he had called it a year earlier.