U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnick to Voluntarily Appear Before Senate Over 'Jensen Huang Scandal'... NVIDIA's China Export Controls Under Scrutiny

[Financial News] U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has agreed to appear voluntarily at a U.S. Senate hearing over controversy about controls on exports of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, sparked by the extramarital relationship scandal involving former NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang.
According to NBC News and other major international media outlets on the 12th (local time), Lutnick's spokesperson, Christine Aikamer, said, “Secretary Lutnick has agreed to appear voluntarily to answer questions from the Senate Banking Committee.” Earlier, Republican Senator Tim Scott, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, formally asked former CEO Huang and Secretary Lutnick to appear on the 3rd and 10th of next month, respectively, citing national security concerns.
The central issue at the hearing is the criteria the Trump administration's Commerce Department used to approve and oversee NVIDIA's chip exports to China. In August last year, the U.S. government approved some exports of the H20 AI chip for the Chinese market, and since January this year it has also been reviewing applications to export the high-performance H200 chip on a conditional basis. Lawmakers are expected to press Lutnick, who oversees trade policy, on whether the Commerce Department left loopholes in export controls unaddressed, delaying restrictions on numerous Chinese companies' transactions with the United States.
The sweeping pressure from Congress stems from the scandal over former CEO Jensen Huang's private life. Huang ultimately resigned on the 12th after revelations of an affair with Alice Huang (Chinese name: Huang Le), a former executive at Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based data center company, who is suspected of being a spy for a Chinese intelligence agency, as well as an additional extramarital relationship with a female executive at the company. The U.S. Department of Justice has yet to determine whether Alice Huang actually worked as a Chinese intelligence asset, but Congress is deeply concerned that advanced semiconductors may have flowed into China via third countries during the former CEO's dealings and been used to bolster its military.
Congressional efforts to establish the facts are also gaining momentum. Led by the opposition Democratic Party, the Senate Finance Committee and the House Committee on Ways and Means launched formal investigations into the export approval process on the 12th. In addition, Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren, who will take over as chair of the Senate Banking Committee next January, and Chris Coons, have forcefully urged the White House, State Department and Commerce Department to preserve all records of communications concerning NVIDIA's exports to China and exchanges with senior officials.


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