Lutnick stalled Trump crackdown on Nvidia chips reaching China

The Commerce Department is preparing to finalize a rule that would bar Chinese AI companies from remotely accessing advanced AI chips through data centers in other countries, The Information reported, hours after Axios reported Secretary Howard Lutnick had repeatedly stalled the wider crackdown on chips reaching China.

Why it matters: A remote access rule would close the offshore training route Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance have used to reach Nvidia's top chips, and its progress would show whether the crackdown Trump authorized three times is finally moving through the department accused of stalling it.

Data as of Axios report of November 11, 2026, as carried in full by Reuters and read in full via the estate browser route; the Axios original was read only in its opening portion, the rest sits behind a newsletter signup wall, which is the blocked-item second route taken here. The account rests on unnamed high-level sources cited by Axios; no statement from Lutnick, the Commerce Department, the White House or Nvidia appears in the reporting read, and the Thursday on which Trump is said to have authorized the crackdown is not dated in the report. Single-sourced, evidence grade C. Developing item. Late update November 11, 2026: The Information report of the same day, via Investing.com, read in full via the estate browser route after the direct fetch was blocked, resting on two unnamed people familiar with the matter; the rule has not been published, so no primary Commerce Department document exists yet, and no Commerce statement appears in the reporting read.

Latest. The Commerce Department is preparing to finalize a rule that would prevent Chinese AI companies from remotely accessing advanced AI chips through data centers in other countries, The Information reported late on Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the matter. The rule would expand the Bureau of Industry and Security controls to seven additional countries, including Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, and would also target chip smuggling into China; it could be announced this month, and Commerce is consulting other government agencies before finalizing it. Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance have all signed offshore data center agreements giving them access to Nvidia’s top chips to train their AI models, and those deals face growing scrutiny as Beijing pushes for more domestic chips, the report said. The measure follows the Axios reporting, below, that President Trump had pushed for tighter controls while Secretary Lutnick opposed them.

President Donald Trump authorized a crackdown on companies suspected of diverting Nvidia’s advanced AI chips to China on Thursday, for the third time this year, after consulting Elon Musk, but Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has repeatedly stood in the way of implementing it, Axios reported on Wednesday, in reporting carried by Reuters. At a Situation Room meeting the same Thursday with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Bessent confronted Lutnick over his department’s resistance to implementing the export controls; Lutnick appeared to agree, but said he needed to check with Trump, according to Axios. No official response from Lutnick or the Commerce Department appears in the reporting.

Lutnick stalled Trump crackdown on Nvidia chips reaching China

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