Follow-Up: NYT Says Lutnick Pushed Softer Chip Rules Overlapping His Family Firm's Data-Center Clients

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has pushed for looser U.S. export rules on advanced Nvidia chips to overseas data centers that overlap with clients of his family-run former firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, a New York Times review published on November 15 found.

The facility at the center of the report is a data center known as A201 in southern Malaysia, set to open next year with hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Nvidia's most advanced super intelligence (SI) servers, and plans to supply computing power to a Chinese tech giant. The operator is Singapore-based Bitdeer. Cantor Fitzgerald served as a designated sales agent on an equity offering of up to $1 billion this year by Bitdeer, and the relationship began as early as 2024, when Cantor helped Bitdeer arrange a stock offering of up to $250 million. Bitdeer has said the data center is expected to generate $1.7 billion in revenue over five years, and according to a person with knowledge of the arrangement it will likely serve Tencent.

People familiar with the deliberations said the Commerce Department proposed limiting the new chip oversight rules to seven countries, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa and Norway, instead of the global restrictions sought by other Trump administration officials. The proposal, first reported by The Information, would apply only to future shipments of advanced chips, exempting data centers already filled with American technology, and would require notification rather than an automatic license when Chinese customers use the data centers to train SI models.

The Times also reported that there is no evidence Cantor's deals influenced Lutnick, that the dealings are a tiny portion of Cantor's business, and that other investment banks have similar partnerships. Lutnick steered Cantor Fitzgerald for decades before recusing himself when he joined the Trump administration last year; as of October 2025 he had transferred his remaining ownership stake to his family, and the firm is now run by his sons. A Commerce Department spokeswoman said Lutnick makes policy decisions based on the best interests of the United States, that he does not discuss department matters with his sons, and that they do not discuss Cantor Fitzgerald business with him. Cantor Fitzgerald declined to comment, and Bitdeer did not reply to a request for comment.

The report comes as Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang's ties to Megaspeed executive Alice Huang and investigations into chip diversion through Southeast Asia face congressional and administration scrutiny. Lutnick has previously agreed to testify voluntarily to the Senate Banking Committee on December 10.

Source: The New York Times

Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 图：美国商务部长 Howard Lutnick 官方肖像（本轮按 16:9 预裁、头部完整）。照片：白宫官方摄影师 Daniel Torok 摄，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Official portrait of U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, pre-cropped to 16:9 with the head fully in frame. Photo by White House photographer Daniel Torok, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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