The United States government is clearing shipments of Nvidia artificial intelligence processors to Chinese companies connected to blacklisted entities, prompting concerns regarding the screening procedures used by both federal regulators and the chipmaker.
Scrutiny centers on the Commerce Department and Nvidia’s vetting processes for buyers cleared to receive H200 AI hardware. Reporting by The New York Times found that one approved recipient, New Matrix, appears to barely exist beyond paper. Established 17 months ago with minimal online presence, the firm was absent from its listed building directory, and local industrial park management had no record of the business. Reporters who visited the registered address described the workspace as an empty, bare shell with exposed wiring hanging from the ceiling.
Despite this lack of operational infrastructure, New Matrix’s owners maintain ties to a Chinese private equity organization that the U.S. government placed on a trade blacklist in 2024. The Times reported that this clearance is part of a wider pattern where enterprises affiliated with entities restricted on national security grounds have managed to secure approval to acquire Nvidia components.
The shipments follow a major shift in trade enforcement. While the Biden administration imposed strict limits on selling advanced computing hardware to China, the Trump administration subsequently softened those rules. The change arrived after Nvidia agreed to provide the U.S. government with a 15 percent cut of all sales proceeds, following an extensive lobbying campaign led by chief executive Jensen Huang, who was also targeted in an espionage operation by China’s Ministry of State Security.
Source: The Verge
