--- title: "Commerce cleared New Matrix, whose Beijing address is an empty office, to assemble Nvidia's H200 chips" description: "The Times found that a buyer cleared to assemble Nvidia's H200 chips has no working office and owners tied to a fund Washington blacklisted in 2024. Congress wants Nvidia's answers on November 18." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Policy & Labor" published: 2026-11-07T14:06:15.329Z modified: 2026-11-07T14:06:15.329Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/commerce-cleared-new-matrix-whose-beijing-address-is-an-empty-office-to-assemble-nvidia-s-h200-chips language: en keywords: "Nvidia, Export Controls, Congress, China, Commerce Department" --- # Commerce cleared New Matrix, whose Beijing address is an empty office, to assemble Nvidia's H200 chips > The Times found that a buyer cleared to assemble Nvidia's H200 chips has no working office and owners tied to a fund Washington blacklisted in 2024. Congress wants Nvidia's answers on November 18. BEIJING and WASHINGTON, November 7, 2026. ## The office that does not exist passed the security review In a new industrial park on the northwest fringe of Beijing, the listed address of a company called New Matrix is a hollow gray shell, wires dangling from the ceiling where lights should be, the building directory omits the firm, and the property manager has no record of it; [the company was created 17 months ago](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/07/business/economy/nvidia-chips-chinese-firms.html) [1]. Earlier this year it was approved to assemble [Nvidia](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/nvidia)'s H200 chips, [the advanced AI processors President Trump allowed to be sold to China late last year](https://theinference.org/article/beijing-is-not-reopening-nvidia-s-china-spigot-it-is-installing-a-meter), into AI computers [1]. The Commerce Department was required to review buyers for national security risk before the chips could move, and New Matrix passed [1]. ## The pattern is the finding Chinese corporate records tie New Matrix's owners to a prominent private equity fund the US government placed on a trade blacklist in 2024, and two analysts who reviewed the records believe the firm may be a front for companies associated with that fund [1]. The Times reports this as a pattern, not a one-off: [Commerce keeps clearing Chinese firms with ties to trade-restricted entities to buy and handle Nvidia's chips](https://theinference.org/article/california-reseller-greg-lui-charged-over-300-million-of-nvidia-servers-routed-to-china) [1]. Who pays and who benefits is plain. Nvidia banks China revenue today, whoever stands behind New Matrix receives the machines, and the US security account absorbs the leak risk. ## The market has started counting the risk [Nvidia traded near $187 on Friday afternoon](https://gizmodo.com/krispy-kreme-is-beating-nvidia-and-thats-not-even-the-chip-giants-biggest-problem-2000836297), well below the 52-week high of $243.37 it set on October 6, and tech stocks have sold off since the midterms as scrutiny fears compound existing doubts about trillion-dollar data-center buildouts [2]. That is a drawdown of roughly 23 percent in a month, a sign investors are starting to price the political channel, not just the demand curve [2]. ## Congress has already booked the room [Bloomberg reports the incoming Democratic majority intends to summon Jensen Huang](https://news.bloomberglaw.com/artificial-intelligence/nvidias-ai-chip-exports-emerge-as-target-in-democratic-congress) and other Silicon Valley executives to testify publicly on whether Nvidia is doing enough to keep its chips out of the hands of China and other US adversaries, steps Republicans largely avoided over the past two years [3]. Three Republican House committee chairs, Brian Mast, John Moolenaar and Rick Crawford, [have already asked Huang for a closed-door briefing](https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/news/press-releases/chairmen-mast-moolenaar-and-crawford-request-jensen-huang-brief-congress-on-link-to-chinese-intelligence-asset) on November 18 about his interactions with Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive, the Chinese-linked tech firm she represents, and Nvidia's security protocols against foreign espionage; he was asked to accept the date or propose an alternative by November 11 [4]. [A separate Times report on November 6](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/06/us/politics/chinese-spy-agency-nvidia-jensen-huang.html) says a memo that circulated among top Trump policymakers last spring cited intelligence that Alice Huang was an asset of China's Ministry of State Security, recruited to collect information on the Nvidia chief [5]. ## The strongest counter, and what it misses Neither the Times nor any published report shows an H200 reaching a restricted end user through New Matrix [1]. The front claim rests on corporate records and two analysts' reading of them, and the firm could prove to be a sloppily documented assembler rather than a conduit. But the review exists precisely to catch a buyer with no office and a blacklisted landlord, and [it approved one anyway](https://theinference.org/article/china-s-state-money-bought-banned-nvidia-b300-servers-then-redacted-the-receipts). ## What to watch The November 11 deadline decides whether Huang accepts the room or starts a standoff. The November 18 briefing, the day after earnings, decides what the three chairs do with what they hear. And Commerce's next clearance list decides whether the pattern widens or the license channel tightens. The other gate is already jammed: [about 600,000 H200s sit in Hong Kong because Beijing withholds approval for large-scale imports](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/general/nvidia-chips-pile-up-in-hong-kong-as-china-withholds-import-approval/ar-AA2gRtJP), so Washington now clears buyers Beijing will not let take delivery [6]. The Inference followed this corridor from the US side earlier this week, when Huang was [asked to brief the House committees](https://theinference.org/article/nvidia-s-jensen-huang-is-asked-to-brief-house-committees-on-november-18-the-day-after-earnings) [6]. If the clearance process becomes a scandal, the license channel is what gets closed, and Nvidia's China business closes with it. ## Takeaway A buyer with no working office and blacklisted owners passed Commerce's security review for Nvidia's H200s, and Congress has summoned Jensen Huang to answer for it on November 18. ## Sources 1. [The New York Times, U.S. Cleared Nvidia Chips to Chinese Firms With Empty Offices and Troubling Ties, 7 November 2026](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/07/business/economy/nvidia-chips-chinese-firms.html) 2. [Gizmodo, Krispy Kreme Is Beating Nvidia, and That's Not Even the Chip Giant's Biggest Problem, 6 November 2026](https://gizmodo.com/krispy-kreme-is-beating-nvidia-and-thats-not-even-the-chip-giants-biggest-problem-2000836297) 3. [Bloomberg Law, Nvidia's AI Chip Exports Emerge as Target in Democratic Congress, 6 November 2026](https://news.bloomberglaw.com/artificial-intelligence/nvidias-ai-chip-exports-emerge-as-target-in-democratic-congress) 4. [House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Chairmen Mast, Moolenaar, and Crawford Request Jensen Huang Brief Congress on Link to Chinese Intelligence Asset, 5 November 2026](https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/news/press-releases/chairmen-mast-moolenaar-and-crawford-request-jensen-huang-brief-congress-on-link-to-chinese-intelligence-asset) 5. [The New York Times, China's Top Spy Agency Recruited Woman Who Targeted Jensen Huang, 6 November 2026](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/06/us/politics/chinese-spy-agency-nvidia-jensen-huang.html) 6. [Reuters (via MSN), Nvidia chips pile up in Hong Kong as China withholds import approval, 5 November 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/general/nvidia-chips-pile-up-in-hong-kong-as-china-withholds-import-approval/ar-AA2gRtJP) --- Commerce cleared New Matrix, whose Beijing address is an empty office, to assemble Nvidia's H200 chips — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/commerce-cleared-new-matrix-whose-beijing-address-is-an-empty-office-to-assemble-nvidia-s-h200-chips