Bessent blames Commerce’s Lutnick for not restricting Nvidia chip exports to China

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday he was frustrated with the Commerce Department’s delay in implementing controls over the export of certain Nvidia chips to China.

Bessent said on CNBC that his department, along with the departments of State and Defense and the U.S. Trade Representative, were 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,” he said. Commerce “has the pen, and you will have to ask them about their internal processes.”

The comments come as Nvidia’s ties to Singapore-based Megaspeed International, which prominently touts the companies’ partnership on its website, play a prominent role in the resignation of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

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 New York 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. Messages seeking comment were sent to the Commerce Department.