“US Department of Commerce suspends sanctions on cloud companies linked to Alice Huang for second month”

The British daily Financial Times (FT) reported that sanctions procedures are being delayed even after the United States is aware of the fact that a company related to Alice Huang, who is suspected of being a Chinese spy due to Jensen Huang's affair, smuggled American artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors into China.

Citing multiple officials, the FT reported on the 10th (local time) that several ministries, including the U.S. Department of Defense and the Department of State, have sought to list the Singaporean company Megaspeed on the sanctions list, but sanctions have not been implemented as the Department of Commerce has shown a cautious attitude toward listing new companies.

According to the FT, several U.S. government agencies have requested that cloud service provider Megaspeed be included in the so-called 'Entity List'.

This list usually includes Chinese-related companies that are judged to pose a risk to national security.

Megaspeed is a Singapore-based company that has been under investigation by the U.S. government for over a year on suspicion of smuggling Nvidia semiconductors into China, but an official familiar with the matter said that the U.S. Department of Commerce, which manages the restricted trade list, has tried to delay new listings over the past two months.

U.S. Commerce Department officials, in consultation with officials from other departments, are said to have taken the position that additional information is needed about some companies included in the sanctions.

It has not been confirmed whether Megaspeed was included in the companies for which the Commerce Department requested additional information, but the FT reported that Megaspeed is still not on the restricted trading list due to the length of the sanctions process.

Megaspeed is a company closely related to Alice Huang, who is suspected of being a Chinese spy and is the lover of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

Alice Hwang and her associates are suspected of using Megaspeed and its subsidiary SpeedMatrix as a link to smuggle Nvidia's AI chips into China.

Alice Huang is known to have acquired the Singapore subsidiary of Chinese game company '7Road' in 2023 using a paper company in the British Virgin Islands and changed the company's name to Megaspeed. According to Singapore company disclosures, Alice Huang was one of several Chinese nationals listed as directors of the company until November 2023.

Relevant ministries such as the U.S. Department of State, Department of Energy, Treasury, and Defense have been pushing for a plan to place MegaSpeed ​​on the trade-restricted list after suspicions arose that MegaSpeed ​​was used to smuggle Nvidia chips into China, but the gist of the FT report is that sanctions are being delayed due to the Commerce Department's position of 'needing more information'.

Chris McGuire, who was previously in charge of export control for the U.S. government, strongly criticized the Commerce Department's response.

“It is incomprehensible how the Commerce Department knew for months that Megaspeed was run by Chinese spies and did nothing to prevent the company from purchasing $4.8 billion worth of Nvidia chips,” he told the FT.