SINGAPORE – A Singapore company owned by Chinese tech giant Alibaba had a financial arrangement with the Malaysian subsidiary of Megaspeed International, a major Nvidia chip buyer under scrutiny over the possible diversion of advanced artificial intelligence chips to China.
Corporate records obtained by The Straits Times show that Speedmatrix, Megaspeed’s Malaysian subsidiary, pledged specified IT and network equipment, intellectual property and related rights to Apex Enterprise Solutions (Singapore) under an agreement dated June 18, 2024.
The arrangement gave Apex security over the assets should Speedmatrix fail to meet certain contractual obligations.
Malaysian corporate records show that the arrangement remained active as at Nov 11, 2026.
The financial connection was highlighted in a May report by US short-seller Culper Research, which alleged that Alibaba may have channelled billions of dollars through Apex to finance Megaspeed’s purchases of Nvidia chips.
The research firm, which had taken a position that would benefit from the fall of Nvidia’s share price, suggested that Alibaba had provided the funds to Apex, which may have passed a substantial portion to Megaspeed for distribution to its overseas subsidiaries.
Apex was incorporated in Singapore in July 2023 and it is registered at Lazada One in Bras Basah Road, which is leased by Alibaba and its South-east Asian online shopping unit, Lazada Group.
Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority records show that Apex’s immediate holding company is Cloud Intelligence (Cayman) Holding Limited.
Its ultimate holding company is Alibaba Group Holding Limited, which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and has contractual rights to Alibaba China’s profits.
Apex, in its audited financial statement for the financial year ended March 31, 2025, described its business activity as “providing procurement activities”.
Its corporate records also showed that Yuan Qian served as a director from August 2023 to August 2025.
The name matches the Chinese name of Selina Yuan, a former Alibaba executive who has headed Alibaba Cloud’s international business in Singapore, but ST has not independently confirmed that she is the director named in Apex’s records.
Apex’s current directors are Gong Zhengyuan, Zhu Bofu, and Madelyn Kwang Yeit Lam, a Singaporean who also serves as the company secretary.
Kwang has also been listed as a director and secretary of Alibaba Cloud (Singapore) since 2016. She did not respond to ST’s queries.
Apex’s auditor is PWC. When contacted, a spokesperson said: “This relates to a client matter, we are therefore unable to comment.”
The Financial Times reported in November that Alibaba was one of Megaspeed’s major customers for its South-east Asian cloud service operation.
Alibaba and Megaspeed did not respond to ST’s queries on the nature of their commercial relationships and whether the relationships have remained intact with investigations into Megaspeed.
Megaspeed’s overseas network
Megaspeed owns seven subsidiaries across five overseas markets, according to its financial statements for 2024, which are its latest publicly available records.
Three are in Malaysia: Speedmatrix, Megaspeed International Sdn Bhd and MSFusion Sdn Bhd. All three are private limited companies.
Speedmatrix and Megaspeed International Sdn Bhd were described as cloud-hosting service providers. MSFusion was classified as dormant at end-2024, but it entered a RM263.2 million (S$82.8 million) agreement to buy a site in Johor for a proposed data centre.
Even so, MSFusion entered into a RM263.2 million (S$82.8 million) agreement to buy a site in Johor for a proposed data centre, according to the seller’s bourse filing in August 2025.
Megaspeed also owned 99.99% of Megaspeed (Thailand) Co Ltd and 99% of PT Megaspeed International Indonesia, both cloud-hosting businesses.
The other two Megaspeed’s wholly-owned subsidiaries are in Australia and the US.
Megaspeed’s latest shipment recorded on corporate intelligence platform Sayari was to Speedmatrix – an Nvidia baseboard for high-performance graphics processing units, which arrived on Nov 18, 2025.
The top receivers of Megaspeed’s shipments were Speedmatrix and PT Megaspeed International Indonesia, according to Sayari.
Official scrutiny
Megaspeed has attracted international attention because of its massive purchases of Nvidia’s advanced AI chips, some of which are subject to US export restrictions intended to limit China’s access to powerful computing technology.
US authorities began investigating Megaspeed over suspicions that it breached US chip export restrictions in late 2024.
Singapore police confirmed in October 2025 that they were investigating Megaspeed over “suspected breaches of our domestic laws”.
The firm drew more scrutiny in late October this year, when news broke that the US was concerned about Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang’s close ties to Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, Megaspeed’s former director and managing director.
On Nov 8, Jensen Huang admitted to having an affair.
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Access to Megaspeed’s office at Ocean Financial Centre is restricted. It showed no signs of activity when ST visited the office in October 2025. A tenant then told ST the office was empty “for as long as it has been” there.
On Nov 11, ST visited the registered address of Swiftdata, the little-known Singapore company that owns Megaspeed, and found it seemingly occupied by an interior design firm, whose co-founder denied knowing Swiftdata, Megaspeed or any of their affiliates.
ST was unable to contact Swiftdata or its sole director Tan Yong Pong, who was appointed Megaspeed’s director in 2023 on the day Alice Huang left the board.
A statement on Megaspeed’s website posted on Nov 12 said it has engaged a US law firm to “lead a comprehensive census of its graphics processing units and independently verify its export control compliance practices”.
The statement was attributed to Tan, who signed off as the company’s chairman and chief executive.
