The Nvidia scandal has implicated U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnick, who is reportedly agreeing to testify before a Senate hearing on chip sales to China
Nvidia scandal draws in Commerce Secretary Lutnick, who reportedly agrees to testify about China chip sales
U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnick has agreed to testify before the Senate Banking Committee in response to national security concerns raised by the Nvidia scandal; he and Jensen Huang were asked to appear at hearings on December 10 and December 3, respectively, and his spokesperson said he is attending voluntarily. Jensen Huang admitted to an extramarital affair with a Megaspeed executive accused of being a Chinese spy; the Singapore-based company has purchased more than $4.8 billion of Nvidia advanced AI chips over the past two years. Combined with another extramarital affair revealed with an Nvidia executive, he resigned on Thursday. Both parties in Congress are questioning whether the Commerce Department has sufficiently restricted AI chip exports to China; Senator Jim Banks said Lutnick appears to have used loopholes to allow some chip sales, and Warren and Coons jointly demanded that all documents on Nvidia chip exports to China be preserved. According to a Reuters report in June, the Trump administration did not add more than 100 companies listed as national security risks to the trade blacklist, including DeepSeek and CXMT.
Both parties in Congress are simultaneously questioning the Commerce Department's gatekeeping responsibility on Nvidia's chip exports to China; two hearings in December will focus on the dispute over export control loopholes.