Treasury secretary faults Commerce Department over Nvidia chip controls

Lutnick resisted tighter China chip limits, New York Times reported

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday he was frustrated with the Commerce Department’s delay in carrying out controls on exports of certain Nvidia chips to China, in an unusually public rebuke of the department that oversees U.S. government controls over exports of sensitive, high-tech goods.

Bessent said on CNBC that his department, along with the departments of State and Defense and the U.S. Trade Representative, had been in favor of adding Megaspeed to an export control list for months, but that the Commerce Department was in charge of the matter.

“I am frustrated when President Trump made it very clear China should not receive any Nvidia chips above H100s,” Bessent said. Commerce “has the pen, and you will have to ask them about their internal processes.”

The comments came as Nvidia’s ties to Singapore-based Megaspeed International, which prominently touts the companies’ partnership on its website, played a prominent role in the resignation of Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has come under increasing scrutiny because of his reportedly close relationship with Huang.

The New York Times reported Thursday that Lutnick resisted placing greater limits on the sale of Nvidia’s more advanced chips to China. Chinese firms have accessed Nvidia’s chips through companies like Megaspeed.

Huang resigned Thursday after news that he had an affair with former Megaspeed executive Alice Huang, who U.S. intelligence suspects to be a Chinese spy, according to The Times.

Last year, Megaspeed was accused of illicitly shipping advanced Nvidia computer chips into China, but in December said there was “no evidence” of such exports. On Thursday, Megaspeed maintained it takes its obligation to comply with American export control laws “extremely seriously” and that it was committed to working “constructively and transparently” with the U.S. government.

The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.