Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared to blame the Commerce Department for failing to act on the Nvidia espionage scandal sooner.
Former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was ousted this week following two (now reportedly three) affair scandals, one with an Nvidia executive and another with an alleged Chinese spy and executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed International.
Speaking on CNBC Friday morning, Bessent said that the Treasury, Defense, and State departments, as well as the Office of the United States Trade Representative, had been “in favor of putting Megaspeed on the entity list for months,” but the Commerce Department “has the pen.” He added, “You would have to ask them about their internal processes.”
The affair allegedly facilitates the shipment of at least $7 billion worth of Nvidia chips to Chinese companies, The Information reported on Tuesday, evading export control restrictions imposed by Washington. Alice Huang, who is accused of helping Chinese companies obtain restricted Nvidia chips, also reportedly had business interests connected to Huawei, Nvidia’s biggest Chinese competitor, according to a CNBC investigation.
“President Trump made it very clear that China should not receive any Nvidia chips above H100s, and so any leakage is very frustrating, because it hurts our great companies in the AI race and gives the Chinese an advantage,” Bessent told CNBC.
