Bessent Pressed Lutnick on Why Nvidia Customer Megaspeed Is Not on the Entity List

"How come Megaspeed isn't on the entities list?" Bessent asked, according to a source briefed on the meeting. Lutnick at first stammered and then answered, "I don't know. I'll look into it," the sources told Axios. The meeting took place on the Thursday after the midterm elections.

The exchange puts the Commerce Department's handling of Megaspeed at the centre of the controversy around Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang. Commerce controls exports of sensitive US technology, and the entity list is its main tool for cutting companies off from American products. Scrutiny of the department has grown since it emerged that Huang had an affair with Alice Huang, whom Axios describes as a Megaspeed employee and suspected Chinese spy.

According to Axios, White House and intelligence officials have pressed Lutnick and his senior advisers to act against Megaspeed since the fall of 2025 and were refused, which led Bessent to raise the matter himself. Commerce Undersecretary Jeff Kessler was warned about Megaspeed several times in deputy-level meetings but deferred to his boss, telling colleagues, "That's a decision for the secretary," the sources said.

Sources also told Axios that Lutnick has spent the past year "undoing" efforts by other administration officials to hold Megaspeed to account, out of concern that doing so would escalate the trade war with China. One source with long experience of the chip dispute dismissed Lutnick's answer in the meeting. That source said Lutnick had resisted action ever since he was personally handed a memo, drafted by Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio, setting out the problems with Megaspeed.

Axios had earlier reported that Lutnick was among the officials who received the intelligence report in May, ahead of a trip to China. Other outlets have since added to the pressure on the department. On Tuesday the New York Times reported that Kessler abruptly stopped a Commerce investigation into Megaspeed after Nvidia intervened. The Financial Times reported that the department was delaying efforts to blacklist the company even though several US government agencies were pushing for it.

A listing on the entity list would require US suppliers to obtain a licence before shipping to Megaspeed, which would in practice cut it off from Nvidia's chips. The meeting suggests that the push for a listing now has support at cabinet level, and from the official who leads economic talks with Beijing.

Axios said spokespeople for the Treasury and Commerce departments could not immediately be reached for comment, and it described its report as a breaking story that would be updated. Lutnick's only reported commitment is that he will look into why Megaspeed has not been listed.