US Cleared Chinese Firms With Empty Offices and Military Links to Handle Nvidia H200 Chips

The findings test the main premise behind the Trump administration's decision in December 2025 to let Nvidia sell the H200 in China: that a case-by-case licensing system could keep the chips away from the Chinese military. They also add to the political pressure on Nvidia and its chief executive Jensen Huang now that Democrats have won control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections.

According to the Times, about two dozen Chinese companies have been approved under the programme, citing people familiar with the approvals. The list includes well-known buyers such as Baidu, BYD and Tesla's Shanghai operation. Reuters has separately reported that Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and ZTE Kangxun Telecom were also authorised. The Times reported that each approved company could buy tens of thousands of H200 chips, but that none had reached its limit.

The Times singled out several smaller firms. New Matrix, a Beijing company founded about 17 months ago, was cleared to assemble H200s into AI servers. Its registered address, in an industrial park on the northwestern edge of Beijing, appeared vacant, and neither the building directory nor the park's management had any record of it. The paper said New Matrix's owners have connections to Wise Road, a Chinese private equity fund that Commerce put on its Entity List in 2024 for allegedly helping Beijing acquire sensitive semiconductor companies. Two analysts told the Times the company could be a front for businesses tied to that fund.

A second firm, Maginfra, also had a deserted office when reporters visited in September. Analysts cited by the Times linked it to Inspur, a server maker on the Entity List over its work with the Chinese military, pointing to shared staff and patents in corporate records. That link rests on analysts' assessments rather than confirmed ownership.

The paper also traced Shanghai Jiatang to state-owned Datang Telecom, which supplies technology to the Chinese military. It connected Zhejiang Yindun Cloud Technology to Range Intelligent Computing Technology Group, a cloud provider that has served military contractors, including a satellite programme run by a Hebei provincial defence bureau.

The Times did not establish that any H200 chips had been diverted to China's military, or that New Matrix or Maginfra had received any chips.

The Commerce Department defended its process, saying it "carefully reviews applications for national security risks." Nvidia spokesman John Rizzo said "it makes no sense for the Chinese military to depend on American technology," and noted that Beijing has itself restricted H200 imports to favour domestic chipmakers.

Liza Tobin, a former China director on the White House National Security Council, told the Times: "I have a ton of concerns" about whether Commerce and Nvidia were doing enough due diligence.

Under the H200 arrangement, the chips are made in Taiwan and must pass through the United States before going to China, which allows Washington to collect a 25 per cent tariff on their value. China sales have so far been small for Nvidia. H200 shipments to China were less than 1 per cent of its data centre revenue in the quarter ending in July, and in August the company said its forecasts for the current quarter assumed no China data centre sales. Reuters reported on November 5 that about 600,000 H200 processors were being held in Hong Kong awaiting clearance to ship to mainland China.

The Bureau of Industry and Security, which runs the licensing system, can revoke or change licences if it finds false statements, end-use violations or new risk information. The agency reported $324 million in export-violation penalties in 2025 and has hired more than 90 enforcement officers this year.

The licensing questions arrive as Huang faces separate scrutiny in Washington. The Times has also reported on his close relationship with a woman US intelligence assessed to be a Chinese intelligence asset, who worked for Megaspeed, a Southeast Asian data centre operator under investigation for suspected chip smuggling. Republicans have asked for a closed-door briefing from Huang. Democratic Senator Chris Coons has said Congress will investigate, and his party takes control of both chambers in January, which gives it the power to subpoena Commerce's licence files.