According to the Times, investigators at Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security had spent months building a case that Megaspeed was smuggling Nvidia chips into China when, in August 2025, they got an email from Nvidia general counsel Tim Teter seeking information about the inquiry. Teter wrote that Jeff Kessler, their boss and a Trump-nominated under secretary, had given Nvidia permission to reach out about the case.

When the agents declined Nvidia's request to meet with one of them, Teter replied that he was unsure what the issue was, since Kessler had said Nvidia could communicate with the bureau's staff. The agents forwarded the chain to Kessler, who told them hours later to keep handling the case by the book. A Commerce official told the paper that Kessler never ordered anyone to share information with Nvidia. Some agents nonetheless saw his contact with Nvidia as a breach of procedure that could taint the case, and officials questioned why the department was discussing it at all with a company that had not been ruled out as a subject of the investigation.

Commerce disclosed the incident to partner agencies, the Justice Department asked it to pause its work, and the case went to DOJ, which is now running a criminal inquiry into Megaspeed. Agents who had spent months on the case were frustrated, and the handoff may have kept Commerce from moving faster to stop technology shipments to Megaspeed.

The Times also reports that since Trump's return, Kessler and other department leaders have required that any investigation into Nvidia first get their approval. Other agencies have proposed adding Megaspeed to the entity list, but Commerce hasn't acted, and the department has not added a single company to the entity list in more than a year, the longest such stretch in 18 years.

Commerce says it handled this and other actions strictly by the book, and DOJ declined to comment. Nvidia spokesman John Rizzo said the company consults with officials to help "halt any would-be smugglers." Megaspeed said it is conducting its own internal investigation and that its repeated offers to cooperate with the US government went unanswered.

All of which sits awkwardly next to Nvidia's line that the Megaspeed diversion claims were "investigated and debunked." Megaspeed itself has pointed to inspections by Commerce's BIS, Malaysia's trade ministry and Nvidia that it says found "no evidence of any violations," even as BIS agents were building a case that is now a criminal probe at DOJ. Commerce's own handling of Nvidia is now on the table for the Nov 18 closed-door briefing.