Amid the Nvidia spy controversy, EU tech sovereignty chief Virkkunen says AI chips only need "very trustworthy partners"

European Commission Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty Henna Virkkunen said on Tuesday at the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon that on key core technologies such as AI chips, the EU should only work closely with "very trustworthy partners." This was Virkkunen's first public statement since Nvidia launched an internal investigation into whether CEO Jensen Huang was a target of a Chinese intelligence operation; Huang admitted to an extramarital affair after being reported to have ties to an executive of the Singapore data center company Megaspeed, whom the U.S. government considers a Chinese spy. Virkkunen did not elaborate on whether the spy controversy led her to believe Nvidia's credibility had declined, but said the U.S. is the EU's traditional "closest partner" on security and technology, suggesting the EU has no intention of blaming the U.S. and prefers to close security gaps through cooperation, and to prevent technology leaks in "limited technology areas" and keep trade secrets in Europe.