The United States has granted permission for Nvidia’s artificial-intelligence chips to be sold to a Chinese entity called New Matrix, despite the firm’s obscure public profile. Government officials have approved the transaction even though the company’s address appears to be an empty office, and its existence cannot be confirmed through standard business directories.
New Matrix was reportedly established seventeen months ago, yet attempts to locate it at the listed industrial-park address have failed. A directory for the building does not list the firm, and staff at the nearby property-management office said they have no record of any tenant named New Matrix, suggesting the address may be vacant.
The firm’s ownership is linked to a Chinese private-equity group that the United States added to its blacklist in 2024. According to The Times, this approval is not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern in which companies connected to entities subject to national-security trade bans have been allowed to acquire Nvidia hardware.
Nvidia’s sales to China were curtailed during the Biden administration, which imposed export controls on advanced AI chips. The subsequent Trump administration eased those limits after Nvidia agreed to remit fifteen percent of its Chinese revenue to the U.S. government. CEO Jensen Huang also launched an intensive lobbying effort, and reports indicate he was targeted in a suspected espionage operation by China’s Ministry of State Security.
The clearance of Nvidia chips for an unverified Chinese office highlights gaps in the U.S. export-control oversight mechanism. Critics argue that allowing technology transfers to entities with connections to sanctioned firms undermines national-security objectives, and they call for tighter verification procedures to prevent similar approvals in the future.