Commerce Department Approved H200 Chip Licenses for Chinese Firms With Empty Offices, Times Reports

The U.S. Commerce Department cleared roughly two dozen Chinese companies to receive Nvidia H200 chips under a new case-by-case licensing policy, but New York Times reporters found little evidence of operations at the listed addresses of at least two licensees, according to a November 7 report relayed by Quartz.

What the Times reported

Times reporters visited the Beijing addresses for New Matrix and Maginfra, two firms approved to assemble H200 chips into AI servers. At New Matrix's listed industrial-park suite, they found a hollow building with wires hanging where lights should be, no directory listing, and property managers with no record of the tenant. A September visit to Maginfra's address yielded similar results, according to the Times account.

Chinese corporate records reviewed by the Times link New Matrix's owners to Wise Road, a private equity fund placed on the Commerce Department's entity list in 2024 for helping China acquire sensitive chip technology. Two analysts who reviewed those records told the Times they believed New Matrix may be a shell for firms linked to that fund. Earlier Times coverage had linked Maginfra to Inspur in analysts' views, according to relays.

The Times cited people familiar with the approvals who said about two dozen Chinese firms received clearance, including major technology companies, each approved for tens of thousands of chips but not yet at quota. Several relays also name firms with military ties among licensees, though Quartz did not publish a full list.

The regulatory framework

The approvals follow a policy shift that took effect January 15, 2026. The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) moved exports of Nvidia H200-class chips to China and Macau from a "presumption of denial" to a case-by-case review, provided applicants certify several conditions [2]:

• Sufficient U.S. supply with no diversion of foundry capacity from U.S. customers
• Aggregate shipments to China and Macau capped at 50 percent of U.S. end-use shipments for that product line
• Recipient security procedures, including Know Your Customer screening to prevent unauthorized remote access
• Third-party testing in the United States before export to verify performance specifications
• Physical security descriptions for the receiving facility

The rule does not, in the passages reviewed, specify a physical site inspection standard inside China.

What remains unverified

• No public licensee list: Commerce has not published the names of approved companies. The two dozen figure and the named firms come from Times reporting relayed by Quartz, not from a government release [1].
• No charges or revocations: The story is investigative, not a court filing. No fraud charges or license revocations have been reported.
• BIS response: The department has not publicly confirmed the empty offices or commented on specific licensees. Quotes attributed to BIS in summaries remain unverified until primary text is available [1].
• Corporate ties: The Wise Road and Inspur connections are based on Times analysis of Chinese registry data and analyst opinion, not U.S. government findings.

Broader context

The licensing gap intersects with a physical supply bottleneck. Three days earlier, Reuters reported roughly 600,000 H200 chips sitting in Hong Kong awaiting Beijing's bulk import decision [1]. A shell assembler clearing U.S. review would not by itself explain the Hong Kong stockpile, but it raises questions about who ultimately receives hardware if chips move.

Nvidia benefits from permitted China sales while Washington debates how tightly to hold the line on advanced accelerators. The company's public statements in relays emphasize supporting U.S. jobs through sales; no November 7 statement addressed New Matrix by name [1].

Practical implications

For operators and developers, the reporting underscores three points:

1. "Approved for China" is not uniform access. U.S. clearance and Beijing import approval can diverge, as the Hong Kong stockpile shows.
2. Intermediary names matter. If assemblers lack verifiable facilities, diversion risk rises for any cloud region training on grey-market hardware.
3. Reporting is not enforcement. Until Commerce acts—publishing the licensee list, revoking an approval, or sanctioning a specific entity—this remains journalism, not a sanctions designation.

The Federal Register rule text is verified as of January 15, 2026 [2]. Times-derived claims are accurate as of November 7, 2026, as relayed by Quartz and other outlets citing the Times [1].