US Cleared Chinese Firm to Buy Nvidia H200 Chips. Its Beijing Office Is Empty, NYT Finds

The US Commerce Department approved about two dozen Chinese companies to buy or handle Nvidia's H200 artificial intelligence chips, but a New York Times investigation published November 7 found that one approved firm's registered office is empty. The firm, New Matrix, was cleared to handle H200 chips — among Nvidia's most advanced AI chips, used to train large AI models — yet reporters who visited its listed address in Beijing found the office vacant. (Cover photo is a file photo of an AI data centre.)

An empty office, and no trace in the building directory

The Times described the space as "a hollow gray shell with wires dangling from the ceiling where lights should be." The building directory had no listing for New Matrix, and a receptionist and a manager at the nearby property-management agency said they had no record of the company. The firm was created only about 17 months earlier, and as of November 6 its website named no staff members, advertised no jobs and gave no company history. The investigation also found that another approved firm, Maginfra, had an office that appeared deserted.

Owners tied to a blacklisted fund

New Matrix's owners are tied to the Chinese private equity fund Wise Road Capital, which the US Commerce Department placed on its trade blacklist in 2024, according to the reporting. The investigation presents this as a pattern rather than an isolated lapse: several approved Chinese buyers were linked to entities subject to national-security-related trade restrictions. The Commerce Department revised its policy in January 2026 to allow case-by-case licensing of H200 sales to China, subject to evidence on buyer security, customer screening and chip supply. The approvals followed the Trump administration's rollback of Biden-era curbs, on condition that Nvidia hand the US government 15 percent of its China H200 sales revenue.

No chips shown delivered; Nvidia and Commerce silent

The reporting does not establish that any H200 chips were actually delivered to New Matrix, and it gives no chip counts, prices or shipment dates; an empty office is not by itself proof that a company does not exist or has broken the law. Nvidia, the Commerce Department and New Matrix did not respond to requests for comment. A separate report the same day, citing a US intelligence memo, said China's Ministry of State Security recruited a senior executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed in an effort to gather information on Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang; Nvidia said Huang's interactions with the person were "not unusual".