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Nvidia 'spy' scandal: Megaspeed Malaysian arm Speedmatrix under scanner

By · Via Times of India · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry and the Royal Malaysian Customs Department are actively probing Speedmatrix, a local subsidiary of Singapore-based Megaspeed International. The investigation centers on allegations that high-performance Nvidia artificial intelligence hardware is being illicitly routed through local data centers to circumvent United States trade curbs. Countering claims of past clearances, officials clarified that Speedmatrix merely rents data center space and that routine monitoring visits do not represent government approval.

Key points

  • Regulatory scrutiny has intensified over local intermediaries suspected of routing advanc…: Regulatory scrutiny has intensified over local intermediaries suspected of routing advanced Nvidia artificial intelligence processors to China.
  • The government's firm stance marks a distinct shift from earlier positions that held rent…: The government's firm stance marks a distinct shift from earlier positions that held renting local GPU space was not inherently unlawful.
  • Unchecked diversion of restricted hardware risks damaging the country's strategic objecti…: Unchecked diversion of restricted hardware risks damaging the country's strategic objective to become an established artificial intelligence and semiconductor hub.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Kuala Lumpur: The spotlight is now on Malaysia as the fallout of the Nvidia spy scandal engulfs more companies and alleged South East Asia-based intermediaries. Fears of high-performance Nvidia chips finding their way to China through Malaysia, bypassing the US trade curbs, have swung the authorities here into action.

Ministry of investment, trade and industry (MITI) has intensified the probe into Speedmatrix Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Singapore-based Megaspeed International Pte Ltd, in collaboration with Royal Malaysian Customs Department.

Malaysia's home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said on Saturday that police had opened an investigation paper as early as April 2025 on allegations that Malaysian subsidiaries were used to circumvent US export restrictions on Nvidia AI chips.

In a statement on Friday, MITI said emphatically that "it has never cleared Singapore-based Megaspeed or its Malaysian affiliate Speedmatrix."

"Speedmatrix is a tenant at data centres in Malaysia. Any verification visits carried out by MITI at these facilities are part of its regular monitoring of the data center sector, and should not be taken to mean that a company has been cleared. Any…

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