Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has agreed to testify before the Senate Banking Committee as the fallout from ousted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's resignation intensifies, CNBC reported.
Lutnick was summoned by Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott amid scrutiny over whether Nvidia could have supplied advanced artificial intelligence chips to Chinese companies and thereby potentially threatened U.S. national security. Huang and Lutnick both received letters on Thursday evening requesting them to testify in separate hearings on Dec. 3 and Dec. 10, respectively. The letter to Lutnick asked the commerce secretary to testify regarding "recent public reports about NVIDIA and the Department of Commerce's role that raises national security concerns."
"Secretary Lutnick has proactively agreed to appear voluntarily before the Banking Committee to address their questions," Kristen Eichamer, a spokesperson for Lutnick, told NBC News on Thursday, CNBC reported. CNBC contacted the Commerce Department for comment.
The letter to Huang said that reports about his relationship with the alleged Chinese spy "raise significant national security concerns." Huang has acknowledged an affair with an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company that has bought over $4.8 billion of advanced Nvidia AI chips over the past two years. The scandal, in addition to reports of a separate affair with a senior executive at Nvidia, led to his resignation on Thursday, CNBC reported.
Bipartisan questions about chip policy
There is growing bipartisan scrutiny of the Commerce Department's approach to chip policy and whether the department was doing enough to restrict the supply of AI chips to China. Lawmakers are also questioning whether the department was overseeing Nvidia's exports thoroughly enough, CNBC reported.
The hearings will split the questions. Huang has been asked to appear on Dec. 3, and Lutnick on Dec. 10. Lutnick's office says the appearance is voluntary. Scott's letter ties the commerce secretary to "recent public reports about NVIDIA and the Department of Commerce's role that raises national security concerns." The underlying issue is not only the personal scandal that ended Huang's tenure, including the acknowledged relationship with a Megaspeed executive at a firm that bought more than $4.8 billion in advanced Nvidia AI chips, but whether those chips reached Chinese companies and how closely Commerce oversaw the exports. Lawmakers are also asking whether the department was doing enough to restrict the supply of AI chips to China, and whether it was overseeing Nvidia's exports thoroughly enough, CNBC reported. Those are questions for the testimony itself, not answers already on the record in Friday's report.