AI summary
Summary of article:
After The New York Times revealed that HUIDA’s attorney general interfered in the US investigation of the MegaSpeed chip smuggling case, the case was immediately transferred to the Justice Department. At the same time, the outside world also questioned the Ministry of Commerce’s control of Huida and China being too loose.
The New York Times reported on the 9th that Nvidia (Huida (also translated as Nvidia) in August 2025 intervened in a US Commerce Department investigation into the alleged smuggling of chips into China by Singaporean data center company MegaSpeed. At that time the investigation had been going on for several months. HUIDA’s head of legal affairs contacted Commerce Department agents to request information and said he had received permission from Commerce Under Secretary Kessler, raising concerns among investigators. The case was immediately transferred to avoid disruption in the investigation.Ministry of Justice There is currently an ongoing criminal investigation into Megaspeed.
The report also noted that after Trump returned to the White House, senior Commerce Department officials required prior approval to investigate or contact Huida. Other agencies have proposed adding MegaSpeed to the “entity list” of the trade blacklist, but the Commerce Ministry has not moved forward, and no new companies have been added for more than a year, creating the longest window period in 18 years.
Huida CEO Jen-Hsun Huang admitted on the 8th that he had an affair with Alice Huang, a former senior executive of MegaSpeed. The US intelligence agency determined that Huang Le was a spy recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security. Their mission included gathering information about Huang Jen-hsun and maybe influencing Huida to induce the company to supply the most advanced chips to China. Huang has long advocated relaxing export controls on China and has influence over Trump and Commerce Secretary Lutnick.
The Ministry of Commerce will launch an investigation into MegaSpeed and Huang Le in 2024. At the time, the company imported billions of dollars of Huida’s advanced AI equipment to Malaysia and built data centers in Southeast Asia to serve Chinese customers like Alibaba. The operations themselves are legal, but authorities suspect that some chips are being transferred to China illegally.
Tim Teter, HUIDA’s director of legal affairs, contacted agents from the Commerce Ministry’s Industry and Security Bureau in August 2025, according to people familiar with the matter. A Commerce Department official said that after Huida’s request to meet with one of them was rejected, Tate responded with a letter saying he had received permission from Jeff Kessler to communicate with bureau employees.
It is not unusual for a representative of a company to contact an agent, but Tate’s mention of the name of the agent’s supervisor raised concerns. Some officials questioned what exactly Kessler, who reported directly to Lutnick, had discussed with Huida because Huida had not been ruled out as a target of the investigation. Conversations between the two parties may violate government procedures and affect the impartiality of the investigation.
Agents then sent correspondence to Kessler, and the Commerce Department held a meeting to discuss and inform cooperating law enforcement agencies. To avoid potential interference with the investigation, the case was immediately transferred to the Justice Department and the Commerce Department suspended the investigation at the Justice Department’s request, people familiar with the matter said. The move has frustrated agents who have spent months collecting evidence and may have prevented the Commerce Department from preventing the technology products in question from being shipped to MegaSpeed sooner.
A Commerce Department official said that within hours of receiving the forwarded email, Kessler had requested that the matter be handled strictly according to regulations and instructed agents not to disclose information to HUIDA or interfere with the arrangement of the meetings. Kessler did not respond for comment.
The suspension of the investigation by the Ministry of Commerce coincided with the United States gathering intelligence on Huang Le’s espionage activities. Trump received a briefing in October 2025 and learned about the relationship between the two and considered Huang Le a spy, but he did not take action based on it.
The U.S. Department of Justice and Commerce Department often jointly handle export control cases, and when crime and intelligence are involved, the Justice Department may take the lead. The Justice Department may seek criminal penalties, and the Commerce Department may impose civil penalties such as fines.
Summary FAQ
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Because he had contacted Commerce Department agents requesting information, he also claimed that he had received permission from Commerce Under Secretary Kessler to communicate with Bureau staff. Detectives believe this may be a breach of procedure and are concerned the investigation will be disrupted.
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A Commerce Ministry investigation found that MegaSpeed imported billions of dollars worth of HUDA’s advanced AI equipment into Malaysia and built data centers in Southeast Asia to serve Chinese customers. Authorities suspect that some of the chips were illegally transferred to China.
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Because Commerce Ministry agents were concerned that Huida’s involvement would affect the impartiality of the investigation, the relevant emails were forwarded to senior officials and law enforcement agencies were informed. The case was then transferred to the Ministry of Justice, which then conducted a criminal investigation.
