As the scandal surrounding former NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang unfolds, others are beginning to become entangled — including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
First, some background: NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stepped down on Thursday after it was revealed that among others, Huang had an extramarital affair with alleged Chinese spy Alice Huang (no relation).
Alice Huang is the founder of a Singapore-based company called Megaspeed International, which is a cloud computing and AI data center firm that bought billions of dollars in AI chips from NVIDIA over the last two years, according to TechCrunch.
Megaspeed is suspected of sharing those restricted chips with China.
While the FBI has been looking into Alice Huang for some time, Attorney General Todd Blanche noted on Thursday that a conclusion hasn’t been reached “around who she is or is not,” CNN reports.
President Donald Trump offered a similar remark: “Well, the big thing is, was the woman a spy? And I don’t know if that’s been determined yet.”
Now, back to how this affects Lutnick.
During an appearance on CNBC on Friday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that while he and others — including the U.S. Trade Representative, and Departments of War and State — wanted to place Megaspeed on a blacklist, the Commerce Department didn’t act.
CNBC: "There have been reports that there was some tension between you and Secretary Lutnick about why Megaspeed was not placed on the Entity List... could Treasury have done that? Was it only Lutnick, Commerce that could have done that? What about the coordination?"
Bessent: “Yes, I can tell you there was coordination. Treasury, War, USTR, and State were in favor of putting Megaspeed on the Entity List for months, but Commerce has the pen. You will have to ask them about their internal processes.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blames Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over Nvidia chip mess: "Treasury, War, USTR and State were in favor of putting Megaspeed on the entity list for months." https://t.co/0BTlHymwUY
— CNBC (@CNBC) November 13, 2026
Lutnick’s seeming delay in adding Megaspeed to the so-called Entity List has led lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to call on the Commerce Secretary to testify before Congress.
Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, appeared on Fox News on Thursday and called the whole situation concerning.
“When you’re at war with another country, you don’t give them your best technology, and that’s why lawmakers for the past two years have been pushing hard to stop our high-end computer chips from being exported to China. And that’s why my AI Overwatch Act is more important than ever. Last year I had the GAIN AI Act, which would have blocked our chips from being sold to China if American customers wanted to buy them first. Nvidia opposed my legislation a year ago; they have opposed other export control laws.
And now we know that the Department of Commerce, Secretary Lutnick, appears to have used loopholes to allow some of these chip sales to occur even though President Trump has directed his administration and the Department of Commerce not to allow that to happen. Not only do I hope for Jensen Huang to come and testify, but I would like for Secretary Lutnick to testify ASAP in front of the Senate Banking Committee.”
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who heads the Senate Banking Committee, penned letters to Lutnick and Jensen Huang, asking them to testify: “Given the Department of Commerce’s central role in issuing and enforcing export control regulations, your testimony before the Committee will be essential to our oversight of these efforts.”
Lutnick will testify on December 10 before the committee.
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