Empty offices, ties to blacklisted companies: a look into the Chinese companies cleared by the US to handle Nvidia chips

A New York Times investigation found that several Chinese companies approved by the US Department of Commerce to handle Nvidia H200 chips have vacant registered addresses and are linked to entities placed on the US Entity List or to military-related companies. Among them, New Matrix was approved earlier in 2026 to assemble H200s into AI servers, but no one was working at its registered Beijing address; its owner is linked to Wise Road, a private equity firm added to the Entity List in 2024, and analysts believe it may be a front for an affiliate of the latter. Maginfra, approved earlier, also has a vacant registered address and is believed to be linked to the already-listed Inspur. Other approved companies, such as Zhejiang Yindun Cloud Technology and Shanghai Jiatang, are connected through equity relationships to military suppliers.