# Culper Research's Nvidia short named Alice Huang in May, and NVDA is 23% lower since
> Christian Lamarco's Culper Research went short Nvidia on May 13 and flagged Jensen Huang's ties to Alice Huang. What the report claimed, what is unproven, and what the Quantral app showed.
By Maya Koeva ยท 2026-11-12
Culper Research went short Nvidia on May 13, 2026. Its 40-page report claimed more than 20% of Nvidia's compute revenue still traced back to China and called Jensen Huang "uncomfortably close" to Megaspeed executive Alice Huang. The China claims are unverified, NVDA has closed 23% lower since, and Quantral follows Culper's account.
Culper Research, New York, a two-analyst short-selling shop
Christian Lamarco, 31, founded it in 2019
"Nvidia: The China Problem," May 13, 2026, 40 pages
Over 20% of Nvidia's FY2026 compute revenue still China-driven
$225.83 (May 13) to $173.73 (Nov 11), down 23%
Disputed by Megaspeed and Nvidia; not independently verified
## What did Culper Research say about Nvidia?
The report opened with one line: "We are short Nvidia $NVDA. We believe Nvidia has a significant
China problem." Culper published it on May 13 as a 40-page PDF and a 17-post thread on X. The core
claims, all of them Culper's:
- **China never went to zero.** Nvidia has said its China data-center business went to "zero" after
the April 2025 export restrictions. Culper claimed that more than 20% of Nvidia's fiscal 2026
compute revenue was still China-driven, through illegal GPU diversion and Southeast Asian
intermediaries.
- **Megaspeed's balance sheet.** Culper said Megaspeed, a Singapore company, grew from $33 million
in assets at the end of 2023 to $3.0 billion at the end of 2024. The jump came from $2.9 billion
of "refundable deposits" from an unnamed source, forwarded to subsidiaries such as Speedmatrix in
Malaysia.
- **The Alibaba link.** Culper said documents suggest Alibaba financed Megaspeed through a Singapore
entity, Apex Enterprise Solutions, which had made $4.1 billion in prepayments by March 31, 2025.
On November 9 the Financial Times reported that documents show Alibaba lent to Megaspeed through
subsidiaries.
- **The server pipeline.** Speedmatrix imported $4.6 billion of product from December 2024 to January
2026, Culper said, $4 billion of it from Aivres, one of Nvidia's "Elite OEM" partners. Aivres is
one-third Chinese-owned and rebranded after its parent, Inspur, was added to the US Entity List.
- **Alice Huang.** The report called Jensen Huang's ties to Megaspeed executive Alice Huang (no
relation) "uncomfortably close" and showed photos of the two at a Taipei party in June 2024 and a
dinner in May 2025. It did not claim a romantic relationship.
Culper said it interviewed former Nvidia, Supermicro and server-maker employees and studied filings
in Singapore and Malaysia.
## Who is Christian Lamarco?
Christian Lamarco is the founder of Culper Research. He graduated in 2016 from Grove City College, a
small Christian college in Pennsylvania, and worked at GrizzlyRock Capital, a long-short fund in
Chicago. In 2019 he quit with a few months of savings and started Culper. The firm is named after
the Culper Spy Ring of the Revolutionary War and uses a minuteman as its logo.
Culper is small: a [Wall Street Journal profile](https://www.wsj.com/business/nvidia-short-seller-culper-jensen-huang-0e0cec38) by Ben Cohen on November 11 describes two analysts
working out of a Brooklyn apartment. Lamarco once finished 2nd in a stock-picking contest at
Carnegie Mellon and won $100.
Culper makes money if the stock falls. It discloses that position in its reports, so look for a
second source before you lean on any claim in them. Our guide to [short interest](/learn/what-is-short-interest)
explains how that bet shows up in the numbers.
## Culper Research's past targets
Culper's earlier reports, with what happened next on the public record:
| Target | Report | What followed |
|---|---|---|
| CytoDyn (CYDY) | 2020 | Ex-CEO Nader Pourhassan was later charged with fraud and sentenced to 30 months |
| Core Scientific (CORZ) | March 2022 | The company filed for Chapter 11 in December 2022 |
| Veru (VERU) | 2022 | An FDA advisory committee voted 8 to 5 against its COVID drug in November 2022 |
| Tecnoglass (TGLS) | Before 2025 | Tecnoglass sued for defamation; the suit was dismissed, and a new one was filed in 2026 |
| NexGen Energy (NXE) | February 2026 | Culper called the Rook I project's value overstated |
| ADMA Biologics (ADMA) | March 2026 | Culper alleged channel stuffing and a related-party distributor |
| Tarsus (TARS) | July 2026 | Culper questioned a company-funded Medicare copay program |
| Cerebras (CBRS) | October 28, 2026 | Culper claimed its chips wear out in about 2 years; Cerebras disputed it |
## What Nvidia stock did after the report
Investors shrugged the report off at first. It closed at $225.83 on May 13 and at an all-time high of
$235.74 the next day. It set a new closing high of $239.24 on October 6.
Then major outlets started reporting the story Culper had sketched in May:
- **October 29.** The New York Times and the FT reported that US intelligence had concluded Alice
Huang was gathering information for China's Ministry of State Security. China's Foreign Ministry
called the spy narrative "unsubstantiated." NVDA closed at $213.66.
- **November 5.** Culper posted "We wrote about this in May." Tech stocks sold off the same day after
Democrats won control of Congress, and NVDA closed at $181.60.
- **November 7.** The New York Times reported that the US cleared Nvidia chips to Chinese-linked
firms with empty offices, and that a Commerce probe of Megaspeed was halted late last year after
outreach from Nvidia.
- **November 8.** Nvidia's board opened an independent investigation, run by a committee of
independent directors with outside counsel, [NPR reported](https://www.npr.org/2026/11/08/nx-s1-6034036/nvidia-launches-investigation-into-ceos-alleged-relationship-with-chinese-spy).
Huang said he fully supports it, and in an email to staff he admitted being unfaithful to his wife.
- **November 9.** NVDA fell 4.27% to $178.67 while AMD rose 13.26%, Marvell 9.49% and Broadcom
8.78%, and a shareholder suit against Nvidia and Huang was reported,
[CNBC wrote](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/09/nvidia-jensen-huang-chinese-spy-investigation.html).
[TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/09/a-short-seller-flagged-nvidia-ceos-ties-to-a-suspected-chinese-spy-six-months-before-the-scandal/)
and [CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nvidia-short-seller-culper-jensen-huang/) went back to
the May report.
NVDA closed at $168.89 on November 10, after an intraday low of $165.89, and at $173.73 on
November 11. That is 23% below the May 13 close, 27% below the October 6 high, and 19% below the
October 29 close. Nvidia reports third-quarter earnings on November 17. Our
[Nvidia stock forecast](/blog/nvidia-stock-forecast) covers what analysts and the graded accounts
expect going in.
## What the Quantral app showed from May to November
Quantral follows @CulperResearch, so its posts land in the [Nvidia](/stocks/NVDA) feed in
the app.
On May 13, the day the report came out, @TheValueist, 7th in our
track-record ranking, posted a long breakdown of it. His verdict was that the report "should be treated as a material,
diligence-worthy negative catalyst rather than as a fully proven short thesis." He called the leap
to what senior management knew the weakest part. If you opened the Nvidia feed on May 13, you got
the short thesis and a measured read of it from an account with a graded record.
On October 29, the day the New York Times story broke, @negligible_cap pointed out that the Culper
report "actually discussed Alice Huang."
Nvidia drew 39 mentions from the accounts we track on May 13 (20 positive, 4 negative) and 60 on
May 14 (27 positive, 17 negative), the day the stock made a new high.
Nvidia's monthly score in the app, which gives more weight to authors with a proven track record,
from the month of the report to today:
| Month | Score | Mentions | Bull : Bear (%) | Close |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | | $211.14 |
| June | | | | $200.09 |
| July | | | | $200.75 |
| | | | | $220.78 |
| September | | | | $228.38 |
| | | | | $204.64 |
| | | | | $173.73 |
The score sat at Weak in May, the month of the report, and climbed back to Strong by August as the
stock recovered.
The score follows what the accounts we track say about the company. In October, the month Nvidia
set its closing high, it showed their conviction thinning, before the October 29 story and the
November slide.
This week mentions jumped and turned negative. Nvidia drew 187 mentions on November 8 (59 positive,
104 negative), 276 on November 9 (115 to 125) and 335 on November 11 (97 to 188). As of today the
24-hour score is 48 (Weak) and the 7-day score is 54 (Weak), with trusted voices at 15 positive
and 25 negative.
## What the report did not prove
The scandal backs up the May report on Alice Huang. The revenue thesis still has four gaps:
- **Culper is short.** It profits if Nvidia falls, and it says so.
- **The diversion numbers are Culper's.** The claim that more than 20% of compute revenue stayed
China-driven has not been independently verified.
- **The other side has answered.** Megaspeed has said US and Malaysian authorities and Nvidia
inspected its offices. Nvidia has said its site checks found GPUs where they should be.
- **Espionage and revenue are separate questions.** The Alice Huang reports cover intelligence
gathering, and none of them measure chip sales.
The board's investigation and Nvidia's November 17 print are the next chances to check these claims
against filings.
## What to take from this
Culper's Nvidia report was public for six months before the scandal made it famous. In the Quantral
app, one of our best graded accounts posted a careful read of it the day it came out. Nvidia's monthly score then cooled from Strong in September to Moderate in October, the
month of the closing high, and to Weak in November. The report is still a set of allegations from a
firm betting against the stock. Read it next to the accounts with a record, and watch how their
conviction moves.
For more on how famous bears have fared on Nvidia, **[read our Michael Burry profile](/blog/who-is-michael-burry)**,
and for the last print, see [how the graded accounts called August](/blog/nvidia-earnings-graded)
and [the scorecard a month later](/blog/nvidia-one-month-scorecard).
## Culper Research Nvidia FAQ
### Who is Christian Lamarco?
Christian Lamarco, 31, founded Culper Research in New York in 2019 after working at GrizzlyRock
Capital, a Chicago long-short fund. He runs the firm with two analysts.
### What did Culper Research say about Nvidia?
On May 13, 2026, Culper said it was short Nvidia and claimed more than 20% of Nvidia's fiscal 2026
compute revenue stayed China-driven through intermediaries such as Megaspeed. It also described
Jensen Huang's ties to Megaspeed executive Alice Huang as "uncomfortably close."
### Is Culper Research still short Nvidia?
Culper disclosed a short position in its May report and posted "We wrote about this in May" on
November 5. Short sellers can close a position without announcing it, so the May disclosure is the
last confirmed word.
### Was the Culper report proven right?
Not as a whole. Reporting since October backs up the concern about Alice Huang, but the China
revenue claim has not been independently verified, and Megaspeed and Nvidia dispute it.
---
*Quantral follows Culper Research; this page describes its public report and
posts, and its claims are allegations. Other facts come from the reports linked above, the Wall
Street Journal (November 11, 2026), The New York Times and the Financial Times. NVDA prices are
Yahoo Finance daily closes through November 11, 2026. Mentions and quoted posts come from the
accounts Quantral tracks, with days in New York time; scores are as of November 12, 2026. Quantral
surfaces signals and context from public sources to support your own research. Nothing here is
financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell. Past signals are not indicative of future
results.*