The concept that small extracellular vesicles (sEVs; 30–200 nm in diameter) can deliver cargo to the nucleus has gained increasing attention in recent years. Several features of this process echo aspects of retroviral infection, even though EVs lack replicative capacity. These parallels have revived interest in the “Trojan exosome” hypothesis (Gould et al., 2003), which posits that sEVs and retroviruses exploit overlapping biogenesis routes and share key functional traits. However, the mechanism governing nuclear entry of extracellular particles is far from settled. Recent evidence points to coordinated interactions between endosomes and the nuclear envelope in both events, raising the possibility that a common nuclear gateway may facilitate both intercellular communication and pathogenic entry.