# Lutnick pushes weaker overseas chip controls amid family business overlap

_Published Sunday, November 15, 2026 at 10:06 AM EST · Policy · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![Howard Lutnick has been sparring with others in the Trump administration over restrictions that could clamp down on the flow of Nvidia’s A.I. chips to data centers that serve Chinese customers around the world. — Primary](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/11/14/multimedia/14dc-lutnick-commerce-01-bqtl/14dc-lutnick-commerce-01-bqtl-facebookJumbo.jpg)

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has advocated a less stringent version of proposed controls on advanced chip sales to overseas data centers, The New York Times reported. One operator affected by the debate is a client of Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial firm Lutnick formerly led and handed to his sons.

The operator's A201 data center in Malaysia plans to open next year with hundreds of millions of dollars in advanced Nvidia AI servers and supply computing power to a Chinese technology company. That arrangement is legal under existing restrictions on direct chip sales to Chinese firms. The proposed controls would give Washington greater oversight of sales to international data centers.

## Sources

- [nytimes.com](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/15/us/politics/lutnick-pushed-to-weaken-chip-rules-that-overlap-with-his-family-business.html)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/dQjRZ4g54jqBwD2bbEpdVj
Published: 2026-11-15T15:06:40.756Z
Story chronology: 2026-11-15T10:02:05.000Z
Retrieved: 2026-11-15T23:01:19.395Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)