This Trader Raised Alarm About Nvidia’s China Entanglements Months Ago

Detailed summary

Christian Lamarco, a 31-year-old short seller and trader, warned about financial and personal problems at Nvidia in May.

Early on May 13, Christian Lamarco, a little-known stock researcher and trader, could barely sleep. Shortly after dawn the 31-year-old would release what amounted to the magnum opus of his career: A 40-page exposé on questionable behavior at Nvidia.

The report mostly comprised a sober examination of whether the chipmaker was being honest about the scale of its China business. But at the top of Page 3, Mr. Lamarco tucked in a paragraph-long warning of the “uncomfortably close relationship” between Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive, and Alice Huang, who worked for Megaspeed, a huge customer.

Mr. Lamarco says his interest in their relationship had been piqued by reporting in The New York Times and Bloomberg News that first detailed a year ago how the Nvidia chief executive and Ms. Huang were seen together socializing with other tech executives in Asia.

So Mr. Lamarco started digging around for himself, using paid expert networks — middlemen that connect investors with company insiders — to chat with current and former Megaspeed and Nvidia employees about Ms. Huang and the companies’ business. The employees wondered about what Mr. Lamarco months ago termed “special” ties between the two executives.

Nvidia’s stock rose that day in May when Mr. Lamarco’s findings were released online. Among the little feedback, he recalled this week, was one note calling him developmentally disabled and another warning him to “watch out.”

Now, the 31-year-old looks prescient. Mr. Huang, after a series of forceful denials, this weekend confessed to an extramarital affair with Ms. Huang, who U.S. intelligence has accused of being a Chinese spy.

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