Key facts
- Bessent said Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has no control over export matters and that the decision is BIS's.
- Bessent said the FTC could perhaps put something on its restrictive list regarding Megaspeed.
- Bessent said the administration was working to shut down leakage in the chip export system.
- Bessent questioned whether Nvidia knew its client and whether it made a robust effort to avoid selling to pass-through shell companies.
- Bessent said anyone at the company should be held accountable for that.
- Bessent said the administration has all the authorities it needs and they just need to be implemented.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on November 13 that his department had favored placing Singapore-based cloud computing firm Megaspeed on the US entity list for months, but that acting on it was up to the Commerce Department. He told CNBC that the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has no control over export matters and that the decision belongs to the Bureau of Industry and Security.
Bessent said the Federal Trade Commission could perhaps put something on its restrictive list. He added that the administration was working to shut down leakage in the chip export system and pointed to questions over how well Nvidia vetted its partner company, citing Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's exit this week, which he said sent shockwaves across the AI industry.
Megaspeed has drawn attention following reports that Jensen Huang had an affair with former Megaspeed executive Alice Huang, whom US authorities suspect of being a Chinese spy. US lawmakers have called for tougher restrictions on China's access to advanced AI chips after the scandal, which the report says has threatened to implicate some Trump administration members, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, amid questions over the administration's oversight of chip sales to China.
Bessent said the real story should be whether Nvidia knew its client and whether there was a robust effort at the company to make sure there was no leakage and that it was not selling to obviously pass-through shell companies. He said it was important that anyone at the company be held accountable for that. Asked whether Congress needed to step in on export controls, he said the administration has all the authorities it needs and they just need to be implemented.