Meet the short seller that flagged Nvidia’s ‘significant China problem’ six months ago—including ‘uncomfortably close’ ties with Alice Huang

Detailed summary

Culper Research shorted the largest company in the world in May—and six months later, it paid off.

Six months ago, Nvidia stock peaked at $235.74 a share. But while others were focused on the AI boom and Nvidia’s growing market cap, one research firm saw a China-sized crack in the foundation.

Now, Nvidia is down 27.9% since then, and Jensen Huang has been ousted as CEO following his romantic affair with a suspected Chinese spy.

In a report in May, short seller Culper Research raised concerns about Nvidia’s exposure to China—including Huang’s relationship with the suspected spy, Alice Huang.

“This is not a bet against AI. We are short Nvidia for one reason: the Company has a significant China problem,” the report read.

Culper Research did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune regarding the return on its short bet.

The central allegation in Culper’s report was that more than 20% of Nvidia’s fiscal 2026 compute revenue was driven by Chinese demand, despite assertions from the company that its China business had fallen to zero following U.S. export restrictions in April 2025.

Culper alleged the revenue came through the smuggling of restricted GPUs to Chinese customers and via Southeast Asian intermediaries that purchased Nvidia hardware and provided computing capacity to Chinese companies.

The research’s allegations focused on Singapore-based Megaspeed International, which it says was secretly financed by China’s Alibaba through a network of shell companies—potentially allowing Chinese companies to access Nvidia’s advanced AI chips.

The problem in relying on this undisclosed China-based revenue was that Beijing has since blocked Nvidia imports in favor of its own domestic chipmakers, according to Culper.

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