Four US Agencies Backed Megaspeed Entity List Addition Months Ago

Key Facts

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Treasury, War, and State departments and the US Trade Representative’s office backed adding Megaspeed to the Entity List months ago, while the procedural decision remained with the Commerce Department. An Axios report published on November 13 quoted Bessent as saying the four agencies supported the addition, without describing the department’s actions as obstruction. He said Commerce “has the decision,” adding that questions about internal procedures should be directed to the department. Bessent thus placed responsibility for resolving the matter with the department handling the procedure, while confirming support from other government agencies. The Commerce Department had not added the company to the list when the report was published.

Megaspeed is a Singapore-based technology company accused of illegally diverting US chips to China, according to Axios. The listing case comes amid scrutiny of the path taken by US artificial intelligence chips and the possibility that they could be redirected to destinations subject to export restrictions. In a response issued on November 12, the company said it takes its obligations to comply with export control laws “extremely seriously” and had cooperated with US inspections. Chairman and CEO James Tan Yong Boon added that compliance was a “core priority” for the company and that it was committed to working transparently and cooperatively with the US government. The company said it had cooperated with inspections by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security and was ready to cooperate fully with other US authorities.

Megaspeed also retained a US law firm to lead a comprehensive inventory of its graphics processing units and independently verify its export-control compliance practices, according to Reuters. In Singapore, police said in October they were investigating the company over suspected violations of local laws, while the Ministry of Home Affairs said investigations involving Megaspeed and six individuals were still ongoing as of November 12. One US scrutiny step dates to June 2025, when the Bureau of Industry and Security conducted a verification of a shipment at the company in Singapore, in the presence of then-CEO Alice Huang, according to Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs. Singapore had opened a separate investigation in February 2025 involving Megaspeed and other companies over potentially false declarations in server purchases and related offenses. The company’s operations include subsidiaries in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the United States and Australia, according to Reuters.

Scrutiny also extended to Malaysia, where the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry said it was working with customs to determine whether chips imported through a Megaspeed subsidiary had been re-exported, and whether any such shipments complied with the law. Since July 2025, Malaysia has imposed controls on exports of high-performance AI chips of US origin, requiring a trade permit to re-export or ship them through the country. The ministry said it was working closely with Singaporean and US authorities and considering stronger controls. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said his country was willing to cooperate with any investigation, but had received no requests for assistance from Singapore or the United States. These domestic measures put chip movements linked to the company under simultaneous scrutiny in more than one country.

In Washington, Senator Michael Bennet asked the Commerce, Justice and State departments and the director of national intelligence to provide a written response by November 24, 2026. The request includes an update on whether the Justice Department is continuing the investigation into Megaspeed that the Commerce Department began. On the next US step, Bessent said the procedural decision rests with the Commerce Department, which had not added the company to the Entity List when the Axios report was published. The department did not immediately respond to Axios’s request for comment on the case. An earlier Axios report said White House and intelligence officials had pressed the commerce secretary and his advisers to act on the company since autumn 2025, while the department denied a reported confrontation between the two secretaries, Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick, and said they had not had that conversation.