By Tom Hals and Melanie Burton
WILMINGTON, Delaware/MELBOURNE, Nov 12 (Reuters) – The Singapore company at the center of the scandal that has engulfed Nvidia’s CEO has registered affiliates in the United States, Australia and other countries with a 29-year-old who listed his address as a newsagent and lottery retailer in a regional town outside Melbourne.
Megaspeed International has been in the spotlight following reports that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had been involved in a close relationship with Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang, a controlling shareholder of the Singapore-based cloud-computing company, who US intelligence officials believed was spying for Beijing.
Jensen Huang admitted on Sunday he had been unfaithful to his wife, but gave no details about the relationship, while Beijing has called the spying claim “a groundless accusation, slander and a smear.” Alice Huang could not be reached for comment.
Megaspeed International filed papers in the US state of Delaware and with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission showing that the affiliates were created in 2024. Both filings list Kai Kang as the sole company officer, either as director or president. Kang was born in Shanghai, according to the Australian filing, which also lists the Singapore-based parent as the company’s stockholder.
Kang is also registered as director in Megaspeed’s Malaysian, Indonesian and Thai units, according to checks by Reuters of company registrations in those countries.
Reuters was unable to contact Kang so visited the home address that had been provided on the filings for the affiliates – a small store in Seymour, Victoria, about an hour’s drive north of Melbourne.
The newsagency, called Seymour News, lies midway down a main street fronted by homeware stores and cafes. On Thursday, there was a revolving parade of locals, popping in to check their lottery tickets and buying gardening magazines or books for their grandchildren.
Reuters spoke with a woman who said she was Kang’s mother and had run the business for about 16 years. The woman, who did not want to give her name, said Kang did not work in the shop and was based in Shanghai.
“He doesn’t have any business here,” she said, adding that Kang had completed his master’s degree at Shanghai University.
He was most recently back visiting his parents in August and September to escape the summer heat of Shanghai, she said.
She said she knew about Nvidia and Megaspeed, but said her son had nothing to do with the company in Singapore.
There is no other record of any business dealings by Kang with the Australian corporate regulator, other than his name as the director of Megaspeed.
Megaspeed Australia’s business address is listed as the 10th floor of a building complex in Sydney’s upmarket business district.
A concierge on the floor said it was a virtual office and Megaspeed used it as an address for administrative purposes.
Megaspeed first attracted attention a year ago when the New York Times reported it was under US investigation over whether it was helping Chinese customers obtain advanced Nvidia chips subject to Washington’s export controls.
On its website, Megaspeed says it is an Nvidia Cloud Partner in the Asia-Pacific region and offers access to the Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 and HGX H100 systems.
Last October, Singapore police said they were investigating Megaspeed over “suspected breaches of our domestic laws” after a US senator requested the Commerce Department to investigate whether Megaspeed had diverted Nvidia chips.
Reuters could not immediately determine whether any Australian authorities were looking into the firm. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation said it does not confirm or comment on investigations.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Melanie Burton in Melbourne; Additional reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman in Jakarta, Rozanna Latiff in Kuala Lumpur, Xinghui Kok in Singapore, Chayut Setboonsarng in Bangkok and Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Praveen Menon and Lincoln Feast.)
