Senate and House committees summon former Nvidia chief Jensen Huang over his alleged affair with a suspected Chinese spy

Two summonses

Jensen Huang, who resigned as Nvidia’s chief executive on Thursday, has been summoned to testify next month before the US Senate Banking Committee about his alleged affair with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy, the BBC reported. The committee’s chairman, Senator Tim Scott, sent letters on Thursday to Huang and to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick requesting their testimony.

“Recent reports raise serious concerns about our national security and the protection of sensitive US technology.”

Tim Scott, US senator, BBC News World

Scott asked Huang to appear voluntarily on 3 December but warned that the committee could issue a subpoena to compel him. Three House of Representatives committees, on intelligence, on foreign affairs and on China, have also asked Huang for a closed-door interview on 1 December. A Commerce Department spokesperson said Lutnick had “proactively” agreed to appear before the Senate committee.

Spy suspicions not proven

Huang admitted on Sunday to having been “unfaithful” to his wife after reports of an affair with Alice Huang, no relation, an executive at the Singaporean firm Megaspeed whom the New York Times reported was suspected of being a Chinese intelligence asset. China has rejected the allegation as a smear. US media later reported a second relationship, with the long-time Nvidia executive Kimberly Powell, and the Times of London reported a third affair, according to a France 24 press review.

US Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Thursday that the Justice Department had not yet drawn any conclusions about whether Alice Huang was spying for Beijing, the BBC reported. France 24 cited CNN as reporting that sources across the US intelligence community said there was no definitive proof she was an intelligence asset. Nvidia has said it has “no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised”.

Pressure on Lutnick and the White House

Lutnick is under scrutiny after unnamed administration officials told US media that he had stalled efforts to tighten exports of advanced AI chips to China. The Verge noted reports that President Donald Trump was warned about Alice Huang’s possible links to Chinese intelligence last year and again before his trip to China in May, and that Nvidia intervened in a Commerce Department investigation into her company. Democrats are planning an inquiry into how much Trump knew, France 24 said, citing the Times.

A record fall for Nvidia

Nvidia has lost $550bn in stock market value in five days, its biggest five-day drop since it went public 27 years ago, and its shares are down 31% from a peak only weeks ago, the BBC reported. The chief financial officer, Colette Kress, is interim chief executive while the company looks for a permanent replacement.

Analysts told the South China Morning Post that Huang’s departure could lead Nvidia to scale back its spending on open-weight AI models, and could deprive Chinese developers of one of their most influential advocates in Washington.