San Francisco (United States) (AFP) – US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called on Nvidia Sunday to explain whether it knowingly allowed its most advanced AI chips to reach China, saying this was more important than ex-CEO Jensen Huang’s affair with an alleged spy for Beijing. Speaking on “Fox News Sunday Morning Futures” three days after Huang resigned, Bessent said he wants to know if Nvidia used shell companies to dodge US restrictions and sell its most powerful chips to China.
The United States forbids sales to China of the most cutting-edge AI chips, hoping to stay ahead of the Chinese in the race to dominate artificial intelligence. In late 2025, President Donald Trump did authorize sales of Nvidia chips called H200s to the Chinese — but not the most advanced chips used to run AI models reshaping modern society. “Nothing above the H200s can be sold to the Chinese,” Bessent said. “What’s more important here,” he said, “is to examine whether Nvidia had a culture of compliance around the US export restrictions.”
He alluded to companies linked to Megaspeed, the Singapore-based data center company that Huang’s alleged lover Alice Huang once worked for. “And who knew? Because I mean, these shell companies were obvious. They were being investigated. And did Nvidia use them as a workaround to sell chips to the Chinese?” Of Alice Huang he said: “It doesn’t matter to me whether she’s a spy or not. You know, Jensen’s foibles are his foibles.”
Bessent said he wanted answers from Nvidia and its internal investigation of Jensen Huang’s behavior within the next 10 days. Megaspeed is suspected by the United States of helping Chinese firms get around US export controls by buying Nvidia chips for its data centers in Southeast Asia and routing them to China. The Justice Department is carrying out a criminal probe. Nvidia late last month said it had investigated these allegations last year and refuted them.
The Financial Times has reported that four federal agencies pushed to have Megaspeed blacklisted by the Commerce Department run by Howard Lutnick, but the latter did not do so. “Many other departments were pushing for this, and Commerce had the pen,” Bessent said, repeating remarks he made Friday that suggest fissures in the Trump administration on this issue.
Senators have summoned Jensen Huang to testify before the chamber’s Banking Committee next month. Lutnick himself has also reportedly agreed to testify. Jensen Huang has also agreed to testify behind closed doors in the House of Representatives before Thanksgiving. Nvidia is due to publish its quarterly results on Tuesday.
© 2024 AFP
