Today we’re going to start with the highly technical and slowly zoom out.
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we → go → technical
It’ll take some patience; I hope you’ll stick with me.
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you → take → me
The short version is:
Trump and American AI companies have spent two years demanding total freedom from regulation because they have to beat China in the AI arms race.
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they → spend → race
Trump knew about this.
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Trump → know → this
Behind closed doors, this compromised CEO was begging Trump to let his company sell state-of-the-art chips to the Chinese—while also giving millions of dollars to Trump’s assorted vanity projects.
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company → beg → projects
This CEO sold billions of dollars worth of chips to the Chinese through fronts/cut-outs.
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CEO → sell → outs
Trump and members of his administration turned a blind eye to all of this.
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Trump → turn → this
The “let AI companies do anything because we must beat China” hawks are also “give China whatever they want so long as we get paid” mercenaries.
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we → let → whatever
And the Chinese spy wasn’t screwing (over) the CEO and the president.
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spy → screw → CEO
She was working with them to get what they all wanted.
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they → work → what
It’s corruption, all the way down.
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It → ’ → ?
Here’s the long version.
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version → ’ → ?
China “Hawks”
Yesterday AI researcher Will DePue released a report proving—fairly definitively—that the four main Chinese frontier AI labs1 trained their recent models using Nvidia’s Blackwell-class GPUs.2
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labs1 → release → GPUs.2
The Blackwell chips are the state-of-the-art Nvidia product, and they are export-controlled.
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they → control → ?
Meaning: These chips are potential national security risks, so the U.S. government maintains strict control over whom Nvidia may sell them to.3
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Nvidia → maintain → them
What DePue found is that the controlled Nvidia chips did make their way to China.
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chips → find → China
He estimates that the Chinese models he surveilled were trained on something like $500m worth of controlled Nvidia chips.
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he → estimate → chips
At the risk of being pedantic: This could only have happened because the Chinese government wanted the chips.
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government → happen → chips
The Chinese frontier labs were not freelancing and doing their own procurement.
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labs → freelance → procurement
This was a state-run op.
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This → run → ?
We know that for sure because the Chinese put a spy—Alice Huang—in bed with the (now former) Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang.
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Chinese → know → CEO
The Information reports that Nvidia sold more than $7 billion worth of chips to China through Alice Huang.
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Nvidia → report → Huang
We also know that the Commerce Department was investigating the sales to Megaspeed when someone from inside the Trump administration talked to someone at Nvidia about the investigation, after which the government investigators were hamstrung.
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investigators → know → which
We further know that Nvidia was making a great deal of money selling a lower-value (but still controlled) class of chips—the H200 series—to Chinese companies.
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Nvidia → know → companies
Jensen Huang had lobbied the Trump administration to allow H200 sales to China because, at the time, H200 chips were still embargoed.
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chips → lobby → time
In late 2025, Trump complied and lifted some restrictions on the H200.
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Trump → comply → H200
But there were still some controls on which companies could get the chips.
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companies → be → chips
Howard Lutnick’s Commerce Department was supposed to vet every purchaser to ensure that the end-use of the chips would not present a national-security risk.
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use → suppose → risk
It turns out that many of these H200 chips were sold to dummy companies with fake addresses and empty offices.
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many → turn → addresses
Meaning that both Nvidia and Trump’s Commerce Department were failing to perform even the minimum due diligence required by law on these sales.
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Nvidia → mean → sales
They just wanted to get the chips out the door and cash the checks.
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They → want → checks
This is a story about Jensen Huang, Nvidia, Trump, and Lutnick grabbing as much money as possible.
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Huang → grab → money
Domestically, Trump demands that people let AI companies build data centers wherever they want, and develop their models however they see fit, because if American AI loses to China it will be the end of the world.
But at the same time, Trump is working with Nvidia to sell as many state-of-the-art chips as possible to the Chinese in order to help their AI efforts.
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Trump → demand → efforts
Trump loosened regulations on chip sales because Nvidia asked him to, and where the regulations remained on the books, Nvidia ignored them (with help from the Trump administration) and sold the chips to Chinese front companies.
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Nvidia → loosen → companies
It’s almost as if they don’t care at all about the “arms race” with China.
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they → ’ → China
It’s almost as if the only thing that matters for Donald Trump and Jensen Huang is that they get their beaks wet.
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beaks → ’ → Trump
Everyone Knew
The Alice Huang honeypot wasn’t some out-of-nowhere, who-could-have-known black swan.
Many people seem to have understood that something hinky was going on between Nvidia and Megaspeed.
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something → know → Nvidia
In the summer of 2025 Singapore—where Megaspeed is based—accounted for fully 22 percent of Nvidia’s total revenue.
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Megaspeed → base → revenue
A massive amount of chips were being sent to the tiny city-state.
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amount → send → state
Then, after Megaspeed was placed on an internal block-list, Nvidia just disappeared the Singapore money as a line item.
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Nvidia → place → item
…and 61 more, not listed.
The Aporia
