US Approves Nvidia AI Chip Sales to Chinese Firms With Blacklisted Ties

Concerns are being raised that neither the Commerce Department nor Nvidia is doing enough due diligence when vetting Chinese firms cleared to handle Nvidia's H200 AI chips. According to The New York Times, New Matrix is on the approved list, yet its offices are empty, and the paper found little evidence that the company exists in any meaningful way. The Times describes the case not as a rare lapse in oversight but as part of a troubling pattern: firms tied to entities under national-security-related trade restrictions are being cleared to buy Nvidia chips.

Empty office and missing records

At the building that New Matrix lists as its address, a company directory does not include the firm. At the property management agency for the nearby industrial park, a receptionist and a manager both said they had no record of the company. The Times described the offices as “a hollow gray shell with wires dangling from the ceiling where lights should be.” Only scant information can be found online about New Matrix, which was created 17 months ago.

Ties to a blacklisted firm

What little information can be found about New Matrix is concerning: its owners have ties to a Chinese private equity firm that has been blacklisted by the US government since 2024, the same kind of link the Times says runs through the approvals.

Policy shift and lobbying

Nvidia had been restricted from selling chips to China during the Biden presidency. The Trump administration relaxed those limits after Nvidia agreed to give the government a 15 percent cut of all sales. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also launched an intense lobbying campaign and was apparently targeted by China's Ministry of State Security in a spying plot.

Sources: The Verge · Techmeme