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

Detailed summary

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that he is frustrated with the Commerce Department’s delay in implementing export controls over Nvidia chips.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday he was frustrated with the Commerce Department’s delay in implementing restrictions 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.”

Bessent’s comments were an unusually public rebuke of the Commerce Department, which oversees U.S. government controls over exports of sensitive, high-tech goods. 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 allegedly had an affair with the CEO of Megaspeed, Alice Huang, who U.S. intelligence suspects is a Chinese spy. China has denied allegations of spying.

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, which has purchased more than $4 billion worth of Nvidia’s advanced semiconductors.

The split in President Donald Trump’s cabinet reflects the widespread fallout from the scandal that has engulfed Nvidia, one of the most valuable publicly-traded companies in the world. Nvidia’s computer chips play a central role in the buildout of artificial intelligence, powering AI models such as those developed by Open AI and Anthropic.

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