Bloomberg reported on 13 November that documents it reviewed trace smuggled Nvidia AI chips to a Shanghai data centre linked to Megaspeed International. The chips were procured by a Chinese company that the publication says Alice Huang founded. Its account places export-restricted hardware at a facility in China, rather than only among orders or shipments associated with Huang.
Key points
- Documents reviewed by Bloomberg place smuggled Nvidia chips at a Shanghai data centre with links to Megaspeed.
- A person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that some servers had originally been sold to Singapore-based Aperia Cloud Services.
- Singapore’s police and customs authorities have begun investigations into Megaspeed and Alice Huang, Fortune reported.
Aperia Cloud Services and the Shanghai servers
Some servers at issue were originally sold to Aperia Cloud Services, a Singapore-headquartered official Nvidia Cloud Partner, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The person requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. That account concerns the servers’ original sale; the report’s finding that smuggled chips reached the Shanghai installation rests on documents reviewed by its journalists.
Megaspeed’s connection to the Shanghai data centre is reported as a link to the facility, rather than ownership of it. The finding adds a destination in China to reporting about the Singapore company, which has been examined over access to Nvidia hardware subject to US export controls. An earlier AI Affairs report on Justice Department inquiries described probes involving Nvidia, Megaspeed and Supermicro.
The distinction between a server sale and its eventual installation matters to the account of how the hardware travelled. Bloomberg’s anonymous source identifies an original buyer in Singapore. Its document-based finding concerns chips installed in Shanghai. The reporting covers the servers’ original sale to Aperia and the installation of smuggled chips at a Shanghai data centre.
Century Litong’s Nvidia partner status
A separate account of Huang’s corporate connections concerns Shanghai Century Litong. Chosun reported on 11 November, relaying reporting by The Information based on corporate records and interviews, that an entity controlled by Huang’s younger sister, Huang Yu, was listed as a founding shareholder when Century Litong was established in June 2023. Bloomberg describes the Chinese company in its account as founded by Alice Huang.
Century Litong obtained Nvidia’s Preferred Cloud Partner designation in October 2023, four months after its establishment, The Information reported. The designation gives qualifying companies priority allocation of semiconductor shipments. Century Litong disputed the allegations about its dealings, saying that it obtained partner status through legal channels and had no business transactions with Alice Huang.
Huang was Megaspeed’s managing director from March to November 2023, during which the Singapore company was owned by Huang Le Limited, a British Virgin Islands entity bearing her Chinese name, according to the same account. Ownership passed to Singapore-based Swift Data in November 2023. The report said Megaspeed’s present ownership and control could not be definitively connected to its earlier structure.
The account also alleged that equipment bought by Speedmatrix, a Malaysian subsidiary Megaspeed established in February 2024, was transferred in part to Century Litong in China. It described another arrangement in which Megaspeed installed Nvidia equipment in Southeast Asian data centres and leased computing capacity to Chinese customers. Nvidia said it applies the same export-control compliance standards to all transactions.
Singapore and Manhattan examine Huang links
The US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan is investigating whether entities linked to Huang took part in alleged efforts to move Supermicro hardware containing Nvidia GPUs into China, Fortune reported on 12 November. Fortune said it was unclear whether that inquiry was connected to smuggling cases already brought in the United States or Asia. It also reported no public evidence of a direct connection between the Supermicro and Megaspeed cases.
In one of those cases, federal prosecutors charged Supermicro co-founder Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw and two others in March over the alleged routing of about $2.5 billion in servers containing Nvidia H200 and B200 GPUs to China through a Southeast Asian company. Bloomberg later identified that company as Bangkok-based AI infrastructure firm OBON, which has not been charged, Fortune reported. Liaw has pleaded not guilty, while Supermicro, which was not charged, says it was a victim of the alleged scheme.
Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs said on 12 November that the Singapore Police Force and Customs had begun investigations into Megaspeed and Huang. As part of those investigations, the authorities sought information from Supermicro, which the ministry said provided only “limited cooperation”. Singapore officials raised the matter with US authorities in July 2025 and asked for help obtaining that cooperation. The ministry said it had since repeated its requests to the Justice Department and FBI.
