Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blamed Secretary Howard Lutnick’s Department of Commerce for failing to restrict exports of Nvidia chips to Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company linked to an alleged Chinese spy.
In a Nov. 13 interview with CNBC, Bessent said the Treasury was one of several agencies that supported putting Megaspeed on the U.S. trade blacklist for months.
“But Commerce has the pen, and you will have to ask them about their internal process,” he said.
Asked whether he confronted Lutnick on the subject, Bessent replied, “We don’t repeat conversations in the Situation Room.”
“I am frustrated when President Trump made it very clear that China should not receive any Nvidia chips above H100S, and so any leakage is very frustrating because it hurts our great companies, and the AI race gives the Chinese an advantage,” Bessent said.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned on Nov. 13 amid mounting scrutiny over extramarital affairs, including a romantic relationship with Alice Huang, a business executive alleged to be a spy for Chinese intelligence operations.
