U.S. allows Nvidia to sell AI chips to a Chinese company with vacant offices

According to The New York Times, the U.S. government approved Nvidia to sell H200 AI chips to companies linked to Chinese blacklisted entities, and one of the approved companies, New Matrix, has vacant office premises. The newspaper reported that New Matrix was founded 17 months ago, the company does not appear in the park's business directory at its registered address, both the property front desk and the manager said they have no record of the company, and there is little information about it online. Available information shows that its owner is linked to a Chinese private equity fund that has been on the U.S. government blacklist since 2024. The New York Times reported that companies linked to entities subject to national-security-related trade restrictions being allowed to buy Nvidia chips is not an isolated oversight but a recurring phenomenon. During the Biden administration, Nvidia was restricted from selling chips to China; the Trump administration relaxed the restrictions, after Nvidia agreed to pay 15% of all sales to the government; CEO Jensen Huang also conducted intensive lobbying and was reportedly a target of Chinese Ministry of State Security espionage.