US commerce department delays Megaspeed's inclusion on trade blacklist

Several US agencies, including the State Department, Pentagon, Energy Department and Treasury, have pressed to place Singapore-based cloud provider Megaspeed on the Commerce Department’s entity list over concerns it was diverting advanced Nvidia chips to China. Commerce, which leads the interagency process, has delayed new additions for about two months while seeking more information; it is unclear whether Megaspeed was specifically part of the delayed package. Listing would require US exporters to obtain licences before selling the company technology. The US has investigated Megaspeed for more than a year over alleged chip smuggling. Scrutiny intensified after reports that Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang had a relationship with Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive suspected by US officials of spying for China. President Donald Trump was reportedly briefed on a classified memo about the relationship in May.

Megaspeed, spun off from Chinese gaming group 7Road in 2023, was authorised to buy Nvidia GPUs and operated computing facilities across Southeast Asia. Singapore police have investigated it since October 2025, while data-centre operators have ended or reconsidered leases amid sanctions concerns. Nvidia says it independently blocked Megaspeed from further purchases in June 2025 and has halted sales for more than a year. A former US export-controls official condemned the government’s inaction, citing claims that Megaspeed had bought $4.8bn in Nvidia chips. Commerce declined to discuss internal deliberations, but said its enforcement work on chip smuggling had led to six investigations and criminal charges against 17 defendants.