Christian Lamarco

MarketWatch’s article of November 9, 2026 states that he became interested in investing as an undergraduate studying finance at Grove City College, a small Christian liberal-arts school in PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaPennsylvania (officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) is a Middle Atlantic state of the United States; its capital is Harrisburg, and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are its two great metropolitan areas. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on December 12, 1787, the second state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 13,002,700.Open the full entry, and that he and another student placed second in a stock-pitch competition organized by Seeking Alpha. He said, “There’s no hedge-fund recruiting [at Grove City], there’s no investment-banking recruiting that really happens,” and, “so if you want to go into investing, you’re going to have to find a creative way to do it.”⁠[1]

In MarketWatch’s article of November 9, 2026, he recalled cold-emailing hedge funds with his investing research, which led to a role at a long-short fund based in Chicago after he finished school in late 2016.⁠[1]

MarketWatch’s article of November 9, 2026 states that about two and a half years later he decamped for Pittsburgh, where he started Culper Research, and that the name of his LLC, Shadyside Partners, refers to a Pittsburgh neighborhood. Culper Research’s “About” page states that the firm was founded in 2019 by Christian Lamarco and is based in New York City, that its name pays homage to the Culper Spy Ring, tasked by George WashingtonGeorge WashingtonGeorge Washington (1732–1799) was the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. Earlier he commanded the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1787.Open the full entry during the American Revolution to report on the movements of British forces, and that it takes “an exhaustive, investigative approach” to investment research.⁠[1][2]

In the same article he said that his interest in the group was piqued by a TV show about the Culper Spy Ring, adding, “I’m not a Revolutionary War freak or anything like that.”⁠[1]

The memorandum opinion of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania dated June 13, 2022 states that Culper Research is a limited liability company under the laws of DelawareDelawareDelaware is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic region on the East Coast, with its capital at Dover and Wilmington as its largest city. On December 7, 1787, it became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, entering the Union as the 1st state, and it had a population of 989,948 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry and an independent stock research firm, and that he is the sole employee and member of Culper Research; the court records name the company Shadyside Partners, LLC d/b/a Culper Research and give his full name as Christian Matthew Lamarco.⁠[3][4]

The disclaimer on Culper Research’s website states that readers should assume that Culper Research and its members, partners, affiliates, employees, consultants, clients and investors hold a position in any securities covered by its research, that “Following publication of any research, we intend to continue transacting in the securities covered herein,” and that its research is not investment advice nor a recommendation or solicitation to buy securities.⁠[5]

Culper Research’s “About” page states that in 2021 the firm was recognized as a “Top 5 activist short seller” by Activist Insight.⁠[2]

The memorandum opinion of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania dated June 13, 2022 states that on or about April 14, 2021, Culper Research published a report on the telehealth company LifeMD, entitled “LifeMD, Inc.: Redwood Redux at RexMD,” on its website and through its Twitter account @CulperResearch, and that the disclaimer on the report’s first page asked readers to assume that Culper Research held a position in the securities covered and stated that the report comprised the author’s opinions.⁠[3]

LifeMD responded in a press release on April 16, 2021, rebutting the report’s points on Redwood Scientific, physician licensing and other matters one by one, including that “LifeMD has never allowed an unlicensed physician to perform a telehealth consult for any of its brands.” Justin Schreiber, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in the release, “The author of this report is utterly lacking in credibility, as its numerous errors, distortions and half-truths show,” and, “The person who’s hurting our shareholders is the author of the Culper report.”⁠[6]

The memorandum opinion of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania dated June 13, 2022 states that LifeMD, its chief executive officer Justin Schreiber and its chief technology officer Stefan Galluppi sued him and Culper Research in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on September 17, 2021, in an eight-count complaint for defamation, trade libel, false light, unjust enrichment, deceptive trade practices, unfair competition, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting (the last brought only against unnamed defendants); the plaintiffs alleged that he, Culper Research and unnamed defendants engaged in a “short and distort” stock scheme. On September 23, 2021, he and Culper Research removed the case to that federal court (No. 2:21-cv-01273).⁠[3][4]

On June 13, 2022, Judge William S. Stickman IV of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania ruled on the motion to dismiss filed by him and Culper Research: the motion was denied as to the counts for defamation, trade libel, false light, deceptive trade practices and unfair competition, which proceeded, and granted as to the counts for unjust enrichment and conspiracy. In the opinion the court found that the communications at issue were capable of defamatory meaning and were not shielded as pure opinion; on unjust enrichment, it held that short-sale profits came from stock trades, not from the plaintiffs.⁠[3]

The complaint filed by JC International Finance Limited and other plaintiffs on June 10, 2026 states in a footnote that the LifeMD action was “subsequently dismissed by all parties.”⁠[7]

Institutional Investor’s article of August 29, 2023 states that in Culper Research’s July 2023 report on SoundHound AI he wrote that SoundHound “claims its AI technology will revolutionize phone and drive-thru ordering, but we think this foray is an utter failure,” and that the report, drawing on former employees his firm interviewed, stated that its ordering relied on call centers staffed by humans, that the company was not profitable and that insiders were dumping the stock. A SoundHound spokesperson responded that its voice AI platform “responds to billions of queries without human involvement” and that its AI-only drive-thru solution, under its partnership with White Castle, was scaling to 100 locations the following year.⁠[8]

CNBCCNBCCNBC is an American business and financial news cable channel launched by NBC in 1989; it merged with its rival FNN in 1991 and since January 2026 has been part of Versant Media Group, spun off from Comcast.Open the full entry’s article of February 26, 2025 states that the short sellers Fuzzy Panda and Culper Research published reports on AppLovin that day; analysts at Culper Research wrote that AppLovin’s recent success in mobile gaming stemmed from the “systematic exploitation of app permissions” and that its design often led users to install apps inadvertently. The article states that, per a letter from him, Culper Research had shared some research with Fuzzy Panda, and that Culper Research did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for confirmation. AppLovin shares closed down 12% that day. AppLovin declined to comment to CNBC directly that day; just before the market closed, its chief executive officer, Adam ForoughiAdam ForoughiAdam Foroughi is the co-founder and chief executive officer of AppLovin, an advertising technology company whose Axon AI recommendation engine powers performance advertising for mobile-game, e-commerce and other advertisers and whose shares are listed on Nasdaq and included in the S&P 500.Open the full entry, responded, calling the reports “littered with inaccuracies and false assertions.”⁠[9]

Culper Research published a report on Gorilla Technology Group on April 4, 2025; the “Latest Research” page of its website lists it as “Gorilla Technology (GRRR): A Brazen Fraud.” Gorilla Technology sued Culper Research and its founder, Christian Lamarco, on April 16, 2025; the complaint filed by JC International Finance Limited and other plaintiffs on June 10, 2026 lists this case in a footnote as No. 1:25-cv-03142 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging libel per se and trade libel.⁠[10][11][7]

Gorilla Technology announced in a press release on July 21, 2025 that the parties had agreed to resolve the litigation through a “confidential non-monetary settlement”; its chairman and chief executive officer, Jay Chandan, said in the release, “We are pleased to put this matter behind us.”⁠[10]

On June 12, 2025, Culper Research published a report entitled “AppLovin (APP): Behind the Red Curtain,” stating in it, “We are short AppLovin.” The report stated that the Chinese national Hao Tang had backed AppLovin since at least 2017, controlling through a web of offshore shell companies up to 28% of its Class A shares before its 2021 initial public offering and at least 9.8% at the time of the report; that chief executive officer Adam Foroughi’s statements denying that the company had major Chinese shareholders were false; that some holding entities had pledged their AppLovin shares under margin loan and structured equity trade agreements not disclosed to investors; and that in January 2025 AppLovin had formed agency agreements with two Chinese ad-tech companies, BlueFocus Intelligence and eClickTech.⁠[12]

The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on September 9, 2025 states that on August 21, 2025 Culper Research published a report entitled “Tecnoglass (TGLS): From Barranquilla to Sinaloa” under “Latest Research” on its website and posted related statements on its X account @CulperResearch the same day; BloombergBloomberg L.P.Bloomberg L.P. is a global financial technology, data and media company founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981. It began by providing terminal services that deliver data, analytics and news to financial professionals, and launched Bloomberg News in 1990. Michael Bloomberg has pledged the vast majority of the company’s profits to his philanthropic organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies.Open the full entry’s article of September 9, 2025 states that the report alleged that the Colombian glass manufacturer Tecnoglass had ties to the founders of the Sinaloa drug cartel.⁠[13][14]

On September 9, 2025, Tecnoglass and its co-founders and executives José Daes and Christian Daes, represented by Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel, sued him and Shadyside Partners, LLC d/b/a Culper Research in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (No. 1:25-cv-07450) for defamation, seeking damages, including punitive damages, and an injunction requiring the removal and retraction of statements adjudicated defamatory. Quinn Emanuel’s press release of September 10 states that the defendants “deliberately published false claims” linking Tecnoglass and its executives to the Sinaloa cartel, based on purported “intelligence” documents that the Mexican government has publicly confirmed are inauthentic, and that Culper Research profited from short positions by spreading fabricated allegations; Bloomberg’s article states that Tecnoglass said the report was based on documents fabricated by a “hacktivist group.”⁠[13][15][14]

The complaint alleges, on information and belief, that he founded Shadyside Partners in 2019, two years after he obtained an undergraduate degree in finance, and without substantial work experience; it states that he is the sole member and owner of the company and the only employee of Culper Research, and that the “we” at Culper Research is really just him. The complaint filed by JC International Finance Limited and other plaintiffs on June 10, 2026 states in a footnote that the Tecnoglass action was “subsequently voluntarily dismissed by Plaintiffs.”⁠[13][7]

On May 13, 2026, Culper Research, the firm he founded, published a 40-page report on NVIDIANVIDIANVIDIA is an American semiconductor and computing technology company that provides graphics processing units, artificial intelligence infrastructure, networking interconnects, and computing software, and is listed on Nasdaq under the ticker NVDA.Open the full entry written by him; Fox Business’s article of November 10, 2026, gives the report’s title as “NVIDIA (NVDA): The China Problem.” In the report Culper Research disclosed that it had bet against NVIDIA’s stock, that is, that it held a short position, which yields a profit when the shares decline. CBS NewsCBS NewsCBS News is the news organization of the U.S. CBS system, part of Paramount, providing news coverage through television, the web and streaming. Its history extends from radio newsgathering to television and digital platforms; its signature programs include CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes and Face the Nation, and CBS News 24/7 is its streaming news service.Open the full entry’s article of November 11, 2026, calls the actions of Megaspeed key to his investigation and states that the report drew on interviews with employees of Chinese companies, Singaporean and Malaysian corporate filings, and social media posts that appeared to show Jensen HuangJensen HuangJensen Huang is the co-founder, president, and CEO of NVIDIA and has served on its board since the company was founded in 1993. He has a background in electrical engineering education and the semiconductor industry, and under his leadership NVIDIA’s business expanded from graphics chips to GPU general-purpose computing, artificial intelligence, and data center computing platforms.Open the full entry and Alice Huang socializing together at various events.⁠[16][17]

CBS News quotes a social media thread that Culper Research posted on May 13, 2026: “Nvidia claims its China business went to ‘zero’ after April 2025 U.S.United StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry trade restrictions,” and “We believe that in reality, over 20% of Nvidia’s FY 2026 compute revenues remained driven by China via illegal GPU diversion and Southeast Asian intermediaries.” Fox Business relays the report as stating that Chinese firms are still accessing NVIDIA’s advanced chips through diversion from other buyers in Southeast Asia, and states that Culper Research said it was short on NVIDIA because of the company’s close ties to China.⁠[16][17]

CBS News relays the report as noting that MegaspeedMegaspeedMegaspeed (in full, Megaspeed International) is a cloud-computing company registered in Singapore that presents itself as a specialized cloud provider and an NVIDIA Cloud Partner in the Asia-Pacific region, offering computing power built on NVIDIA GPUs. Formerly named 7Road International, it took its present name in March 2023; a Bloomberg article of December 2025 described it as the largest Southeast Asian buyer of NVIDIA chips. Singapore’s police have confirmed since October 2025 that they are investigating the company for suspected breaches of Singapore law; a letter from members of the U.S. Congress of March 2026 and articles in several news outlets state that U.S. authorities have been investigating whether it breached U.S. export controls. In a statement of December 2025 the company said that repeated on-site inspections had found no evidence of illicit chip transfers.Open the full entry had “relatively few assets at year-end 2023” but within a year spent $2.9 billion to purchase NVIDIA-powered servers, and as stating that Megaspeed and its Malaysian affiliate, Speedmatrix, together purchased $4.8 billion of NVIDIA’s advanced AI equipment and processors over the last three years; it quotes Culper Research as stating, “Megaspeed went from very little business to billions in a rapid time frame.” Fox Business relays the report as noting that NVIDIA has vouched for Megaspeed.⁠[16][17]

CBS News relays the report as stating that Jensen Huang appeared to have an “uncomfortably close relationship” with Alice Huang. Fox Business quotes Culper Research as writing that Jensen Huang “has not only vouched for Megaspeed, but seems to have quite literally walked alongside Megaspeed at every step, while maintaining an uncomfortably close relationship with Megaspeed’s Alice Huang.” CBS News states that the report did not directly refer to a romantic relationship between the two but included several photos and video stills showing them together at various events; Fox Business states that the report “didn’t directly suggest an affair” and that it noted they were seen together in June 2024 and May 2025.⁠[16][17]

CBS News’s article states that NVIDIA’s stock was trading at $225.83 per share when the report was published and that between that date and the close of trading on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, the shares lost 25% of their value; it also states that NVIDIA “didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment” and that he did not immediately respond to requests for comment either. MarketWatch’s article of November 9, 2026, states that NVIDIA and Megaspeed did not immediately respond to requests for comment.⁠[16][1]

On June 10, 2026, JC International Finance Limited and other companies, together with two individuals, sued him and Shadyside Partners, LLC d/b/a Culper Research in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (No. 1:26-cv-04930) for libel per se over a summary graphic in the AppLovin report of June 12, 2025, seeking damages of no less than $1,000,000, punitive damages and permanent injunctive relief; the complaint alleges, on information and belief, that he is the sole member and owner of Shadyside Partners, and states that the report is prefaced with a disclaimer disclosing that the defendants held short positions in AppLovin stock.⁠[7]

On June 12, 2026, Hao Tang, described in the complaint as a Cypriot citizen, sued Shadyside Partners, LLC d/b/a Culper Research and him in the same court (No. 1:26-cv-05018) for defamation per se under New York law, alleging that the report falsely tied Hao Tang to money laundering, illegal gambling, human trafficking, murder for hire, Chinese intelligence and Chinese Communist Party propaganda outlets, and seeking compensatory damages of no less than $75,000 plus punitive damages. The complaint states that Hao Tang wrote to Shadyside Partners and to him in December 2025 asking for the report to be removed and that neither responded, that Hao Tang sent two further letters in January 2026, and that Shadyside Partners responded to the third letter but refused to retract or correct any of the statements.⁠[18]

MarketWatch published Joseph Adinolfi’s interview with him on November 9, 2026, describing him as the 31-year-old founder of Culper Research and stating that the firm consists of two analysts in addition to himself and has published about 40 short reports. He said of the time after the report’s publication, “The initial comments were overall pretty negative,” and, “Now, everybody and their mother is reaching out,” adding, “We were confident in the research initially, and we’re still confident in it now.” Of NVIDIA’s statement that its China business had collapsed after the U.S. imposed export restrictions while its sales to entities based in Southeast Asia appeared to be booming, he said, “Those two details seemed to conflict.” He would not say whether Culper Research was still betting against NVIDIA’s stock or how much, if any, money it had made; the article states that they had found potential circumstantial evidence linking NVIDIA to at least six other companies in Southeast Asia.⁠[1]

CBS News’s article of November 11, 2026 quotes his remark in a recent interview with The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American morning daily newspaper published in New York City. Founded in 1851, it is published by The New York Times Company.Open the full entry: “Everyone was just mocking us, and now everyone is singing our praises.”⁠[16]

Culper Research: Official website: https://culperresearch.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[5]