Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent challenged Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick last week over why Megaspeed, a large Nvidia Corp. customer, had not been added to the Commerce Department's entity list, people familiar with a White House Situation Room meeting told CNN and Axios^2,3.

The New York Times, in a report whose full text was not available behind a paywall, described a clash among Trump administration officials over Megaspeed, the firm at the center of an Nvidia-related controversy, and said Bessent confronted Lutnick about why advanced chip sales to the company had not been restricted¹.

CNN said two people familiar with the matter placed the exchange last Thursday and framed it as tension inside the administration over Chinese access to Nvidia's advanced chips². Axios said the meeting came after the midterm elections³.

Officials have long raised concerns that Megaspeed circumvented U.S. rules and diverted advanced chips to China, a prospect Treasury staffers argued should put it on the entity list, CNN reported². Axios said White House and intelligence officials had pressed Lutnick and his advisers to act against Megaspeed since the fall of 2025³.

Despite those warnings, Commerce has so far declined to add Megaspeed, the people told CNN². Confronted by Bessent, Lutnick did not immediately commit to a specific step, CNN said². Axios reported that Lutnick said he would look into it³.

A source briefed on the meeting told Axios that Bessent asked, "How come Megaspeed isn't on the entities list?"³.

Megaspeed is a Singapore-based firm that CNN said began as Chinese game developer 7Road International in 2015 and later became one of Asia's largest Nvidia chip buyers, purchasing more than $4 billion of semiconductors by some analyst estimates². Megaspeed has denied wrongdoing and called itself a "compliant and legal company," CNN reported². China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called spy allegations involving Megaspeed executive Alice Huang groundless speculation meant to smear China, according to CNN².

CNN said senior officials, including Lutnick, were briefed months ago about Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang's relationship with Alice Huang, whom the U.S. intelligence community suspected of being a Chinese spy². Axios said Lutnick was among officials who received a related report in May, before a trip to China³.

Adding Megaspeed to the entity list could inflame tensions with China as the administration manages the trade relationship, CNN said, noting Commerce has not added any company to the list in more than a year². Axios said sources described Lutnick as having spent the last year undoing other officials' efforts to hold Megaspeed accountable over trade-war concerns³.

Representatives for Treasury and Commerce did not immediately respond to CNN's requests for comment². What Lutnick will do next, and whether Megaspeed will be listed, was not established in the accounts^2,3.