The US let Nvidia sell chips to an empty office in China

Questions are being raised about how US officials and Nvidia vetted Chinese companies approved to handle Nvidia’s H200 AI chips. One approved firm, New Matrix, appears to have no functioning office or clear business presence, raising concerns about whether checks are adequate and whether restricted entities could gain access to advanced chips.

The New York Times found New Matrix’s listed premises empty, with no listing in the building directory and no record of the company at the industrial park’s management office. The firm was created 17 months ago, and its owners have ties to a Chinese private equity firm blacklisted by the US since 2024. The report describes this as part of a broader pattern; the Trump administration eased restrictions on Nvidia chip sales to China after the company agreed to give the US government 15 per cent of sales.