Nvidia crisis spurs scrutiny of US agency that oversees chip curbs

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The Bureau of Industry and Security is a small yet powerful agency that sets export control policy and enforces US restrictions.

Under Secretary of Commerce Jeffrey Kessler and the Bureau of Industry and Security are coming under fresh scrutiny for their handling of export restrictions.

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration official who runs US export control programmes was looking for marquee names for his agency’s upcoming annual conference and threw an unusual option into the mix: Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang.

Under Secretary of Commerce Jeffrey Kessler had expressed interest in recent months in inviting Huang to be a speaker at the Bureau of Industry and Security event on Jan 10 in Washington, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.

Kessler bragged about his ability to get Huang to attend, the people said, though the then-Nvidia chief ultimately fell out of the running. A BIS spokesperson said no speakers have been invited to the conference yet and planning is still underway.

Even considering Huang as a possible speaker was unusual because BIS regulates exports of Nvidia’s prized artificial intelligence chips and company executives rarely headline such events, the people said. There’s also the fact that Nvidia, one of the highest-profile subjects of BIS regulations, has vehemently opposed strict limits on selling advanced chips to Chinese customers.

In the wake of Huang’s abrupt downfall as CEO of the chipmaker he founded more than three decades ago, Kessler and his agency are coming under fresh scrutiny for their handling of export restrictions. Congress is demanding answers about whether BIS and the Commerce Department did enough to keep Nvidia’s AI processors out of China’s hands as well as the degree to which Silicon Valley leaders like Jensen Huang may have influenced policy.

“BIS sits at the intersection of America’s leading edge innovation and our need to protect against our adversaries stealing that innovation or using it against us,” said Christopher Padilla, who served as Assistant Secretary of…

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