Key points
- The New York Times found that New Matrix, approved to handle Nvidia H200 AI chips in China, has an empty office and almost no online footprint.
- New Matrix was created 17 months ago, and its owners are tied to a Chinese private equity firm blacklisted by the US since 2024.
- The Times reports this is a pattern: firms linked to entities under national-security trade limits have been approved to buy Nvidia chips.
- The Trump administration eased Biden-era limits after Nvidia agreed to give the government 15 percent of all sales.
Why it matters for marketers: Chip export vetting affects AI supply, pricing and policy risk. Marketers who depend on AI vendors should expect regulatory shifts that could change access and costs.
A New York Times investigation, as summarized by The Verge, says the US government has approved sales of Nvidia's H200 AI chips to Chinese firms with ties to blacklisted companies. One of them, New Matrix, reportedly operates from an office the paper described as a hollow gray shell, with wires dangling where lights should be.
According to the Times, little about New Matrix can be verified. It was created 17 months ago, it does not appear in the building directory at its listed address, and staff at the nearby industrial park's property management agency said they had no record of it. Its owners are tied to a private equity firm the US has blacklisted since 2024. The Times describes this as part of a broader pattern, not a single lapse.
The policy backdrop matters. Nvidia was restricted from selling chips to China under the Biden administration. The Trump administration relaxed those limits after Nvidia agreed to hand the government 15 percent of all sales. Concerns now center on whether the Commerce Department and Nvidia are doing enough due diligence on the firms they clear.
For marketers and content teams, this is not a campaign story, but it touches the supply chain behind the AI tools they use. Chip export rules shape where compute goes, what it costs and how stable vendor access is. Scrutiny of these approvals could lead to tighter rules or reversals.
Watch for responses from the Commerce Department and Nvidia, and for any change to the licensing process. Teams that rely heavily on one AI vendor may want to track how policy shifts could affect pricing and availability.
Sources
This brief is our own summary. Read the full reporting at the source.