The allegations behind Nvidia’s scandal and GTA 6’s record breaking pre-launch | Week in Views

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The games industry moves quickly and while stories may come and go there are some that we just can’t let go of…

So, to give those particularly thorny topics a further going over we’ve created a weekly digest where the members of the PocketGamer.biz team share their thoughts and go that little bit deeper on some of the more interesting things that have happened in mobile gaming in the past week.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns

This week, the biggest story in the news has, of course, been the scandals engulfing Nvidia.

The headlines focus on CEO Jensen Huang’s extra-marital affairs, one with an alleged Chinese spy – though that particular claim has not been confirmed. Following multiple alleged affairs, and an admission to being unfaithful, Huang has now resigned and been replaced in the top job on an interim basis.

Nvidia is a key component of the AI revolution in tech and Huang has himself been instrumental. The scandal comes a week before Anthropic’s big IPO, and given Huang’s own status in business, as a chief marketer for generative AI and his political influence, what happens at Nvidia matters.

But what is getting less reporting is the company’s actual alleged business dealings that has seen chips apparently being shifted to China. Huang had once claimed its AI dealings in China dropped to zero, though it was later able to sell certain processors.

Short-seller Culper Research claims 20% of Nvidia’s FY2026 revenue remains driven by China – “supported both by illegal GPU diversion and Southeast Asian intermediaries”. The New York Times has been reporting allegations that shell companies have been used to purchase chips to circumvent trade restrictions.

At the heart of alleged Chinese spy allegations is that the person in question, Alice Huang, is an executive of Singapore-based data centre firm Megaspeed.

The Financial Times reports that the company became one of Nvidia’s biggest Asian customers – its rise coming through being a conduit between Nvidia and Megaspeed’s biggest customer, Alibaba. US authorities are said to be investigating Megaspeed over suspected violations of US chip export restrictions, as are Singaporean police.

Just two weeks ago, I wrote about how, in my research for the Top 30 Southeast Asia Game Makers 2026 list, there were a number of companies that listed their headquarters in Singapore, but actually had significant operations in China – some seemingly taking lengths to obfuscate that fact.

There can be a variety of reasons companies set up their HQ in certain countries or cities around the world, including simply for tax purposes, to more easily reach global markets or even for geopolitical reasons.

As I wrote: “One of the things that has often come up during research is how some companies obfuscate where their true operations lie and various different names in sometimes confusing corporate webs.”

“Whatever business and legal reasons, companies can make it surprisingly difficult to find where some of the world’s top games are actually made, and by whom.”

In the case of Nvidia, it’ll be curious how this all gets untangled and explained, and whether these allegations ultimately impact its bottom line, not just its share price and chief executive’s job.

GTA is almost here and it’s already breaking records

There’s been a lot going on in the games industry this week, from the EU’s Digital Fairness Act and My.Games management buyout, and of course Jensen Huang stepping down as CEO of Nvidia. 

Despite the busy news week, I’m going to talk about something else entirely. It’s not a mobile games story but is one of the biggest moments in gaming right now. We’re just days away from the launch of GTA 6.

This will be my last Week in Views before the game releases and after 13 years since GTA 5, it’s hard to believe we’re finally almost there.

I think we all expect GTA 6 to break some records, but it’s already doing so before it’s even out. According to Sensor Tower estimates, the game has surpassed 11 million digital pre-orders, taking over Cyberpunk’s previous record of eight million.

There are also reports that GTA 6 has become the most pre-ordered game in history on both the PlayStation Store and Microsoft Store. Elsewhere, estimates suggest that the game has already generated more than $1 billion in pre-launch revenue. For comparison, it took GTA 5 three days after release to reach $1 billion in sales. 

Then there’s the demand to actually download it. Virgin Media reported its biggest ever broadband traffic peak and highest daily data volume on November 10th as players rushed to pre–load the giant download – I hope everyone made space on their consoles.

Daily usage surpassed the previous record, which was set just a week earlier by Fortnite Chapter 7 Mini Season, by 4%. 

This is all before the game is even out, demand is incredibly high. It has been a long wait, and I hope everyone who’s been looking forward to the game gets to enjoy it. I know I certainly will be.