U.S. cleared Nvidia chips to Chinese firms with empty offices and troubling ties
In a recently built industrial park on the northwest fringe of Beijing, the listed address of a company called New Matrix stands empty, a hollow gray shell with wires dangling from the ceiling where lights should be.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration approved this Chinese firm to assemble Nvidia’s advanced chips into the computers that create artificial intelligence. President Trump allowed the sale of the chips, called the H200, to China late last year. But before they could be sold, the Commerce Department was required to review the companies involved for national security risks.
New Matrix passed that review. Yet recent checks by The New York Times found that, within China, there is little evidence the firm actually exists, raising questions about who in China is behind the company.
Only scant information can be found online about New Matrix, which was created 17 months ago. At the building that New Matrix lists as its address, a company directory does not include the firm. At the nearby property management agency for the industrial park, a receptionist and a manager both said they had no record of the company.
According to Chinese corporate records, New Matrix’s owners have ties to a prominent Chinese private equity fund that the U.S. government placed on a trade blacklist in 2024. Two analysts who examined the corporate records and other Chinese-language information said they believed New Matrix may be a front for firms associated with that fund.
The sale of chips to New Matrix appears to be part of a pattern that has concerned technology experts inside and outside the government: The Commerce Department is giving clearance to buy and handle Nvidia’s chips to Chinese companies with ties to firms that have been subject to national-security-related trade restrictions.
Nvidia’s chips are the crucial technology in A.I. data centers and now one of the world’s most coveted commodities. They are also at the heart of the economic and geopolitical competition between the United States and China. [Continue reading…]