Dec 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Commerce

recently asked Nvidia ( NVDA ) to look into how the company's

products ended up being smuggled into China over the past year,

the Information reported on Thursday.

It asked distributors like Super Micro Computer ( SMCI ) and

Dell Technologies ( DELL ) to do spot checks of their customers

in Southeast Asia, the report said, citing a person close to the

department.