Nvidia H200 chips approved for Chinese firms linked to sanctioned entities
Washington’s chip export controls seem to have some blind spots.
Nvidia. By GettyImages
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- The US Commerce Department approved H200 chip sales to Chinese companies despite concerns about some buyers’ ties to restricted firms.
- New Matrix passed the review, but The New York Times found no apparent activity at its listed address.
- Corporate records link New Matrix’s owners to a restricted private equity firm; analysts suspect it may be a front.
- Reuters reported that Alibaba, ByteDance and Tencent received approval to purchase more than 400,000 H200 chips.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
The US Department of Commerce has approved the sales of Nvidia’s H200 chips to Chinese companies with questionable ties to Beijing or the Chinese military.
In early 2026, US President Donald Trump permitted Nvidia to sell its H200 chips, one of the company’s most powerful chips used by large language models (LLMs), to China, on the condition that there’s a sufficient supply of these AI chips within the United States and that Nvidia contributes 25% of the revenue.
However, before the H200 chips could be sold, the US Department of Commerce was required to review the companies involved for the sake of the United States’ national security.
One of the companies that passed this review is called New Matrix, located in a recently built industrial park northwest of Beijing.
According to The New York Times, the building sits empty, with no office equipment or active personnel. A receptionist and a manager at the nearby property management agency for the industrial park told the news outlet they had no record of the company.
In addition, Chinese corporate records show that New Matrix’s owners have ties to a prominent private equity firm that was placed on the United States’ Covered List in 2024.
The Covered List, also known as the Entity List, has been around since 2021 and aims to identify Chinese companies with close ties to the Chinese government or military, either because they are directly controlled by Beijing or the military, or contribute to the defense and attack capabilities of China’s army.
The list includes various prominent Chinese tech companies, such as China Mobile, China Telecom, Dahua, Hikvision, Huawei, and ZTE.
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Two analysts told The New York Times they believe that New Matrix may be a front for firms associated with the banned private equity firm. This raises questions about who is behind the company and what it wants with Nvidia’s advanced H200 chips.
New Matrix is but one of the questionable Chinese companies that are allowed to handle Nvidia’s H200 chips. The Department of Commerce has approved dozens of debatable Chinese companies to buy and sell Nvidia’s advanced AI chips, The New York Times says.
“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,” the news outlet claims.
According to The New York Times, major Chinese companies such as Baidu, BYD, and Tesla Shanghai had already been granted permission to purchase H200 chips, of which the first two companies had previously been linked to the Chinese military.
Earlier this year, anonymous sources told Reuters that Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent had been approved to purchase more than 400,000 H200 chips.
As of writing, Nvidia has launched an internal investigation into its CEO, Jensen Huang, and his romantic ties to a foreign intelligence agent.
