Jensen Huang, who resigned as Nvidia’s chief executive, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have been summoned to testify next month before a Senate committee as Huang’s affair with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy raises national security concerns.
Senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina, on Thursday evening sent letters to Huang and Lutnick requesting their testimony in front of the Senate Banking Committee.
Congressional leaders of both political parties have said they support efforts to hear from Huang directly about his entanglement with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman who US officials concluded had been recruited by China’s main spy agency.
Scott asked Huang to appear on December 3 by his own volition but also threatened that the committee could issue a subpoena. House Republicans also said on Thursday they were in discussions with Huang to testify before other committees. Huang has hired lawyers who previously represented executives in government investigations, according to people familiar with the matter.
Senior White House officials are discussing whether Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick should be pushed out amid a spy scandal surrounding Nvidia’s now-former CEO Jensen Huang, two people familiar with the situation said on Thursday.
A growing number of lawmakers criticised Lutnick for the administration’s refusal to add dozens of Chinese companies to a key US trade blacklist, and over whether the government was properly overseeing Nvidia’s exports to China.
Criticism of Lutnick’s actions predates Thursday’s resignation of Huang, who said he would step down as chief executive officer (CEO) of the leading artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker after reports of an affair with Alice Huang, whom US authorities suspect of spying for Beijing. But the charge that Lutnick has not done enough to restrict AI chip shipments to China has emerged as the fallout from Jensen Huang’s actions grows.
Earlier on Thursday, a White House official said President Donald Trump “maintains complete confidence in the secretary and his ability to carry out the position.”
In June, Reuters reported the Trump administration had held off adding China’s AI startup DeepSeek, memory chipmaker CXMT and over 100 other firms flagged as national security risks to a trade blacklist.
Asked on CNN if Lutnick should lose his job, Republican Senator John Kennedy said: “I don’t know yet.” He and others have urged Lutnick to quickly publicly answer questions and noted he will be called to appear before Congress. “This is as serious as an aneurism.”
The US has not posted any additions to that list since October 2025, the longest stretch between new postings in over a decade. Reuters earlier reported that the US Commerce Department has not added new Chinese companies to that list for fear of escalating tensions between the US and China.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, who will chair the Senate Banking Committee starting in January, and incoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, wrote to Lutnick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, telling the administration to preserve all documents related to Nvidia’s exports of advanced AI chips to China.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Friday his department had favored putting Singapore-based cloud computing firm Megaspeed on the US entity list for months but it was up to the Commerce Department to act, adding that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) could possibly take other action. He added that the administration was working to shut down “leakage” in the chip export system.
