NYT: Commerce Dept. Chip Inquiry Was Halted After Nvidia InterventionA representative for Megaspeed said the company was…

NYT: Commerce Dept. Chip Inquiry Was Halted After Nvidia Intervention

A representative for Megaspeed said the company was conducting an internal investigation into allegations of chip diversion and had repeatedly offered to cooperate with the U.S. government but that those offers had gone unanswered.

The United States began investigating Megaspeed and Ms. Huang in 2024, after the company started importing billions of dollars’ worth of advanced Nvidia A.I. equipment into Malaysia. Megaspeed had been planning and constructing data centers around Southeast Asia to serve Chinese clients, including Alibaba, the Chinese tech giant. While that behavior is legal, U.S. officials were concerned that some of the Nvidia chips the company had bought were illegally routed into China.

In August 2025, officials at the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security who were pursuing the case received an email from Mr. Teter, the general counsel of Nvidia, people familiar with the incident said. In a message to the agents, Mr. Teter said that Mr. Kessler had given him permission to reach out about the case.

A Commerce Department official said that Nvidia had contacted the employees directly to request a meeting with one of them. When the employees declined the meeting, Mr. Teter responded to the employees by saying he was unsure what the issue was because Mr. Kessler had said Nvidia could communicate with the bureau’s employees.

The employees forwarded the email chain to Mr. Kessler. Hours later, Mr. Kessler responded, saying they should continue to handle the case strictly by the book, the official said.

Mr. Kessler did not order his employees to divulge information to Nvidia, and he did not weigh in with the agents on what meetings to take or what information to divulge, that official said.

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