Congress has summoned former Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang to testify next month about an alleged affair with a woman suspected of being a Chinese intelligence asset, days after his abrupt resignation sent the chipmaker’s shares tumbling.
Senator Tim Scott, the South Carolina Republican who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, sent letters on Thursday to Huang and to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick asking both men to appear before the panel. Scott asked Huang to testify voluntarily on 3 December and warned that the committee could issue a subpoena if he declined. Lutnick has been asked to appear on 10 December.
Three House committees — intelligence, foreign affairs and the select committee on China — separately sent Huang a letter summoning him to a closed-door interview on 1 December. The chairmen said there were “clear national security concerns that need to be addressed immediately” and that Congress needed to know “the full extent to which our national security has been put at risk”. House Foreign Affairs chairman Brian Mast said Huang had agreed to brief lawmakers before Thanksgiving, with the exact date still being negotiated.
Huang, who led Nvidia for 33 years and made it the world’s most valuable company, stepped down on Thursday. On Sunday he admitted he had been “unfaithful” to his wife after reports of a relationship with Alice Huang, an executive at the Singapore firm Megaspeed who is no relation. The New York Times reported that US authorities are investigating whether she passed information to Beijing, including by helping to smuggle advanced Nvidia chips into China. China has rejected the allegation as a smear, and Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Thursday that the Justice Department had not yet reached any conclusion about whether she engaged in espionage.
Reports have also alleged a second relationship, with long-time Nvidia executive Kimberly Powell. The espionage allegation itself remains unverified, and no charges against either Huang or Alice Huang have been publicly reported.
Nvidia has lost $550 billion in market value in five days, its steepest five-day decline since it went public 27 years ago. Its shares are now down 31 percent from their peak a few weeks ago. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress was named interim chief executive on Thursday while the company searches for a permanent replacement.
Nvidia has launched an independent inquiry, including into whether its former chief executive was the target of a foreign intelligence effort, and hired a major US law firm to run it. The company has said it has “no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised”.
Lutnick is also under scrutiny. Unnamed administration officials have told US media that he stalled efforts to tighten export restrictions on advanced AI chips to China, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is reported to have confronted him over Megaspeed being left off a list of companies posing a national security threat. The Commerce Department has denied that confrontation took place. A spokesperson said Lutnick had “proactively” agreed to appear before the Senate Banking Committee in December.
Democrats are pressing for a wider accounting. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor this week that he wanted a “full accounting” of what President Donald Trump knew about the alleged spying and how Huang influenced the administration’s national security decisions, including its decision to allow Nvidia to sell advanced computer chips to China last year for a cut of the profits. The New York Times reported that Trump was briefed on the intelligence roughly a year ago and did not act on it. Trump has repeatedly defended Huang, calling him an “honorable” man who did an “incredible job” leading Nvidia.
Sources: BBC (https://thestatesjournal.com/articles/nvidia-s-jensen-huang-summoned-by-senate-after-resigning-over-alleged-spy-affair-b6d1ce52/); USA Today (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/11/12/trump-huang-congress-investigation-spy/92750160007/).
