The suspicion that Huida CEO Huang Renxun was involved in Chinese espionage continues to spread, and the storm has even reached the top of the US government! According to Axios reports, the White House and U.S. intelligence officials have pressured Commerce Secretary Lutnick to investigate and deal with Megaspeed, a Singaporean company suspected of transferring Huida's advanced AI chips to China, but Lutnick has repeatedly resisted related actions. CNBC further revealed that although the financial company controlled by Lutnick's two sons cut off nearly half of Huida's shares within six months, it continued to have close ties with Huida and its AI supply chain, and even assisted related companies in arranging billions of dollars in financing, raising questions about the relationship of interest.
CNBC reported that Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial company formerly helmed by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and now run by his two sons, will be taken over by his sons Brandon Lutnick and Kyle Lutnick after Lutnick becomes U.S. Secretary of Commerce in February 2025.
According to CNBC's analysis of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, the company held more than 3.5 million shares of Huida stock at the end of 2024, with a market value of approximately US$479 million (approximately NT$15.8 billion). As of September 2025, the number of shares held remained roughly unchanged, when the market value had increased to US$652 million (approximately NT$21.5 billion).
However, the number of shares held shrank significantly in the next half year, falling to approximately 3 million shares in December 2025, and further dropped to 1.78 million shares at the end of March 2026, a 49% decrease from September 2025, and the value of the stock holdings also dropped from US$652 million to US$310 million (approximately NT$10.2 billion).
It is worth noting that this period also happened to be a sensitive period when the US government asked Lutnick to step up the investigation of Huida AI chips suspected of being smuggled into China. According to Axios reports, the U.S. White House and intelligence officials have pressured Lutnick to deal with Singaporean company Megaspeed's alleged transfer of Huida's advanced AI chips to China, but Lutnick has repeatedly resisted related actions.
What is even more concerning is that although Cantor Fitzgerald reduced its declaration of holdings of Huida shares, it did not sever its business relationship with Huida. CNBC reviewed securities filings, corporate announcements and Wall Street research reports and found that the company continues to assist partners in Huida's AI business ecosystem in arranging billions of dollars in financing, and has also repeatedly invited Huida's senior executives to participate in investor meetings. At the end of September last year, Cantor Fitzgerald even invited Huang Renxun and other Huida executives to New York to attend an investor meeting. In a research report released on October 3, it maintained a target price of $350 and an overweight rating for Huida.
The report said the reason why these business relationships are under renewed scrutiny is related to Huang Jensen's resignation on Thursday and Axios' revelation that Lutnick repeatedly resisted operations to crack down on companies suspected of smuggling Huida chips into China. In particular, as early as November 5, Trump had authorized for the third time the implementation of new export restrictions on these suspected smuggling companies, but Lutnick was still accused of obstructing relevant inspection measures many times, drawing special attention to the close contacts between his family's financial company and Huida.
Richard Painter, chief ethics lawyer in the White House under former U.S. President George W. Bush and now a law professor at the University of Minnesota, pointed out that there is currently no evidence that Lutnick disclosed non-public government information to his son, but this relationship can easily raise questions from the outside world. He reminded Lutnick that conversations with his son should only involve public information.
However, Cantor Fitzgerald told CNBC that the company’s holdings reported through 13F are mainly related to customer exchange transactions and hedging business, and are not purely self-operated investment positions. The report also emphasized that there is currently no evidence that Lutnick's son had prior intelligence warnings, or that the change in shareholdings was related to the government warning, and there is no evidence that the company's business interests influenced Lutnick's policy decisions.
In addition, U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent revealed in an interview with CNBC on the 13th that the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Defense, the State Department, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative have all supported the inclusion of Megaspeed in the list of entities that restrict transactions for several months. He also pointed out that the relevant lists are implemented by the Department of Commerce, which also brought to the fore the differences within the U.S. government over chip export controls.
