GOP lawmakers push Jensen Huang and Howard Lutnick to appear before Congress amid Nvidia controversy
Republicans on Capitol Hill are pressing now-resigned Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to appear before Congress early next month about the scandal that has rocked one of the most important companies in the world — as a Senate panel asks Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify.
"We need to know the full extent to which our national security has been put at risk," the chairs of the House Select Committee on China, Foreign Affairs Committee and Intelligence Committee said in a statement requesting Huang's presence.
The three committee chairs wrote a letter Thursday asking Huang to appear for a closed-door interview on Dec. 1. They said if he does not accept their request by Friday evening, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will issue a subpoena.
The upper chamber has also pushed Huang to appear. Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, asked Huang to testify voluntarily before the panel in the first week of December, but warned the committee is prepared to use its subpoena power if needed.
"The American people deserve answers," Scott wrote on X.
Nvidia, whose chips have fueled the AI boom, announced on Thursday that Huang had stepped down following a scandal over his affair with Alice Huang, a former executive at the company Megaspeed who is suspected of being a Chinese spy.
Huang's resignation from the company he co-founded has not dampened calls from members of Congress for answers about Nvidia's relationship with Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center company that gained access to highly prized chips that are banned from being exported to China. Megaspeed is under investigation in the U.S. and Singapore for allegedly smuggling those chips into China — allegations Megaspeed has denied.
Moments before Nvidia announced Huang's resignation, Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said on CNBC on Thursday morning that he would happily support subpoenaing Huang. A Cramer spokesperson said he would still support subpoenaing the tech founder.
The controversy has also raised questions about whether the federal government has done enough to prevent Nvidia's chips from being diverted to China — and about the Trump administration's close relationship with Huang.
Scott asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to appear for a public hearing next month. The House Foreign Affairs Committee also requested testimony from Under Secretary of Commerce Jeffrey Kessler, who leads the Bureau of Industry and Security, an agency that oversees export controls.
Some critics have argued Lutnick's Commerce Department should have taken action to prevent Megaspeed from buying chips. The New York Times reported that a Bureau of Industry and Security probe into the firm was halted last year.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told CNN on Thursday he wanted to hear from both Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, saying: "This is serious as an aneurysm."
Earlier Thursday, the chairman of the House Select Committee on China, GOP Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, said lawmakers were "in discussions" with Huang "on a date to come and meet with us." But he added, "If for some reason that were not to happen, all three committees, all three chairs have said we will use our subpoena power."
Moolenaar and two other chairs — Rep. Brian Mast of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Rep. Rick Crawford of the Intelligence Committee — first asked Huang to appear in a letter last week. They said the purpose of the closed-door briefing would be to discuss Nvidia's "security protocols against foreign adversary espionage and your interactions with a publicly reported People's Republic of China (PRC) intelligence asset." The lawmakers gave Huang a deadline of Wednesday to respond.
Mast and Moolenaar told reporters on Thursday that they received a response. Mast said Huang indicated he's willing to appear. Moolenaar said that Huang's resignation "does change the dynamic" surrounding his potential testimony.
"I think right now our goal is to get him in as soon as possible, so that we have a full understanding of the facts and get to the bottom of the truth of this situation," Moolenaar said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune also told CBS News that he expects "there'll be an interest in doing oversight" in the Senate. Asked whether he wants Huang to testify, Thune said, "I think that it would make sense because of the, again, the nature of the association and the governments and the national security interests, what we're talking about here."
Democrats will take control of both the House and Senate in January. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Democrats have questions for the Trump administration, too.
"Despite Jensen Huang's resignation, Congress must demand answers from Mr. Huang and others at Nvidia about how they may have put U.S. national security at risk," Schumer said on X. "The Trump administration must also answer for what it did once it learned about Mr. Huang's relationship with a suspected Chinese intelligence asset."
President Trump, a friend of Huang's, has downplayed the scandal and said he doesn't believe Huang knew the Megaspeed executive was a spy. The president said Thursday that Huang had done a "fantastic job."
"NOW THAT Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place — TIM COOK of Apple," the president posted to Truth Social.
