Technology1 min read

US treasury secy flags 'lots of leakage' in US chip exports, slams Nvidia & Lutnick

By · Via Times of India · Published by Everything Blog

In short

In an interview with CNBC, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that Nvidia lacks robust controls to detect potential spying. He asserted that the Trump administration is actively working to resolve severe vulnerabilities and leakages across the nation's chip export framework. Bessent also revealed that the Treasury Department favored adding Megaspeed to the U.S. entity list months ago. However, he noted that jurisdiction over the list belongs solely to the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security rather than the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Key points

  • The Trump administration is actively taking steps to eliminate significant vulnerabilitie…: The Trump administration is actively taking steps to eliminate significant vulnerabilities found in American semiconductor export controls.
  • Treasury officials cannot unilaterally restrict targeted foreign entities because authori…: Treasury officials cannot unilaterally restrict targeted foreign entities because authority over the trade entity list rests with Commerce.
  • Additional regulatory bodies like the Federal Trade Commission could potentially step in…: Additional regulatory bodies like the Federal Trade Commission could potentially step in to take restrictive action against problematic entities.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

US treasury secretary Scott Bessent on Friday slammed Nvidia and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick over the ongoing spying row, saying the chip-making company had no robust controls to identify whether any spying was taking place.

During an interview with CNBC, Bessent said there was significant leakage in the chip export system and that the Trump administration was working to plug those gaps.

Bessent said his department was in favor of putting Megaspeed on the US entity list for months, adding that it was up to the commerce department to manage the list and that the FTC could possibly take action.

"OFAC has no control over things like this, in terms of exports. This is a BIS (Bureau of Industry and Security)decision, and perhaps the FTC could put something on their restrictive list," Bessent told CNBC.

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