U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent accused the Commerce Department of failing to add Megaspeed to the Entity List

U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent publicly criticized the Commerce Department on CNBC on Friday, saying that the Treasury Department, the Department of Defense, the State Department, and the U.S. Trade Representative's Office had for months supported adding Singapore data center company Megaspeed to the Entity List, but that the Commerce Department, which holds that authority, had been slow to act. He questioned whether Nvidia understood its customers and whether it did its utmost to avoid selling chips to shell pass-through companies that lead to diversion, and said accountability should be pursued. Megaspeed is led by Alice Huang, whom U.S. intelligence agencies have determined to be an asset of the Chinese government; she has a romantic relationship with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who resigned on Thursday after the related exposure, and the company's stock price fell sharply. Commerce Secretary Lutnick has in recent months advocated caution on technology exports and opposed blanket restrictions; The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Bessent had confronted Lutnick in person about Megaspeed last week, and a Commerce Department spokesperson denied that the conversation took place, saying Entity List decisions are made at the whole-of-government level. Megaspeed buys Nvidia chips to build data centers in Southeast Asia serving Chinese customers, a legal loophole in U.S. export controls, and the government is also investigating its suspected smuggling of Nvidia chips to China.