The US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, attributed responsibility to his counterpart at the Commerce Department, Howard Lutnick, regarding the export of advanced Nvidia semiconductors to China.
During an interview with CNBC, Bessent mentioned that Donald Trump had signaled that China should not receive these cutting-edge Nvidia semiconductors. He described the 'leaks' of these strategic components to Megaspeed, a central company in a espionage scandal involving former Nvidia executive Jensen Huang who is about to leave, as 'frustrating.'
According to Scott Bessent, several government agencies, including his own department, have requested the blocking of these exports to Megaspeed for months, but he pointed out that the authority to make this decision belongs to the Commerce Department, which failed to act.
US intelligence services suspect that Alice Huang, a former director at Megaspeed, acts as a Chinese spy and maintained contact with Jensen Huang, now former leader of Nvidia, a prominent company in Artificial Intelligence (AI) semiconductor development, with the aim of obtaining corporate secrets.
Megaspeed allegedly helped Beijing circumvent US export restrictions to China by purchasing computer equipment intended for its data centers located in Southeast Asia.
Scott Bessent emphasized that these restrictions exist to prevent China from catching up to the United States in the AI competition, and they are monitored by the Commerce Department. In response to the journalist interviewing him, he challenged the reporter to question the department's internal procedures.
Howard Lutnick may be called to testify before Congress soon, with the Democratic opposition seeking clarification on why he did not take measures to prevent the most sophisticated semiconductors from falling into 'wrong hands,' given that he was aware of the ties between Jensen Huang and Alice Huang.
Several American media outlets reported that Scott Bessent had recently confronted Howard Lutnick about the lack of restrictions against Megaspeed during a meeting held at the White House. Bessent confirmed the occurrence of this questioning during the interview, although he refused to detail the conversation that took place at the government headquarters.
