Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is demanding answers from Nvidia over the company’s alleged circumvention of U.S. export controls.
During a Sunday interview on Fox News, Bessent was asked why Singapore-based AI cloud and infrastructure company Megaspeed was not put on the Entity List, which would have blocked it from purchasing Nvidia chips.
Bessent again pointed the finger at Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick during the interview, but pivoted to questions he has about Nvidia’s company culture and how it might have facilitated bad conduct.
“But I think what’s more important here … is to examine whether Nvidia had a culture of compliance around the U.S. export restrictions,” Bessent said. “And at what level — was it a low level fail? Was it in the middle? Or was it up in the C-suite? And who knew? Because, I mean, these shell companies were obvious; they were being investigated. And did Nvidia use them as a workaround to sell chips to the Chinese?”
Host Larry Kudlow asked why Nvidia and/or the Commerce Dept. would want to subvert export controls to allow China access to high-end chips either directly or through shell companies.
Bessent noted that President Trump “drew a very strong line” that nothing more advanced than mid-level chips could be sold to China. He added that further investigation will provide answers as to Nvidia’s level of culpability.
“If this were a bank, and they hadn’t complied like this, the OCC would be in there right now and a lot of the executives would be removed,” Bessent said.
The Treasury Secretary added that outside of whether or not former Megaspeed executive Alice Huang was a Chinese spy, or if former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had affairs — what he wants to know is if Nvidia was “pressing these seemingly illicit sales to goose their revenues and their earnings.”
“I think we need answers in the next ten days from the board and from the outside counsel,” he concluded.
Kudlow put a fine point on the segment by emphasizing that this scandal, “giving China access to our best technologies," is a significant national security issue.
Here’s the FULL Secretary Scott Bessent interview just moments ago. A ton of important topics and info here: - He wants answers from the board on whether or not Nvidia was knowingly circumventing US export controls to sell advanced chips to China - Doesn’t care about an affair or if Alice Huang was a spy - He repeats his critique of Commerce Secretary Lutnick for failing to place Alice Huang’s Megaspeed on the U.S. export control blacklist - Moved to the booming economy: Manufacturing is booming, job gains are surging, and prices are falling, including gas. - Explains how sanctions on Iran have shrunk its economy 25% in just one year, comparing that to the fall of the Soviet Union which shrunk 23% over three years before it collapsed.
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) November 15, 2026
Editor’s Note: The American people overwhelmingly support President Trump’s law and order agenda.
Help us fight back against the Democrats and Soros-backed DAs that refuse to enforce our laws to hold criminals accountable. Join Townhall VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the Conversation
VIP members get the ability to comment on articles.