Chinese firms cleared to buy Nvidia H200 chips include empty-office companies linked to sanctioned suppliers, NYT finds

Two Chinese companies approved to buy Nvidia H200 chips had empty offices, and their owners are linked to firms the US has sanctioned for helping China's military, a New York Times investigation found, Tom's Hardware reports. Around two dozen Chinese firms have received approval, including Baidu, BYD, Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance.

The offices of New Matrix and Maginfra were empty shells, and people working nearby had never heard of them. Public records show New Matrix was founded by Li Bin, who with two other main owners is connected to Wise Road, a private equity firm sanctioned for helping Beijing acquire chip technology. Maginfra is suspected of links to Inspur, blacklisted since 2023, through shared staff, patents and ownership. A third licensee, Zhejiang Yindun Cloud Technology, has executives reportedly related to the founder of Range Intelligent Computing, which has sold compute to Chinese military contractors.

"I have a ton of concerns that neither the Commerce Department or Nvidia is doing the due diligence needed," former White House National Security Council China director Liza Tobin told the Times. Nvidia says it sells "the first, best and most" of its technology in America, TechCrunch notes. The report follows a US intelligence memo on an alleged spy plot targeting Nvidia's CEO.