GOP lawmakers negotiating for Jensen Huang to appear before Congress after Nvidia exit
Washington — Republicans on Capitol Hill are negotiating for now-resigned Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to appear before Congress about the scandal that has rocked one of the most important companies in the world, lawmakers said Thursday.
"We are in discussions with him right now on a date to come and meet with us," said GOP Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, the chairman of the House Select Committee on China. But he added: "If for some reason that were not to happen, all three committees, all three chairs have said we will use our subpoena power."
Nvidia, whose chips have fueled the AI boom, announced on Thursday that Huang had stepped down following a scandal over his affair with Alice Huang, a former executive at the company Megaspeed who is suspected of being a Chinese spy.
Moolenaar and two other chairs — Reps. Brian Mast of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Rick Crawford of the Intelligence Committee — wrote a letter to Huang on Nov. 4 asking him to appear for a closed-door briefing with all three committees. They said the purpose of the briefing would be to discuss Nvidia's "security protocols against foreign adversary espionage and your interactions with a publicly reported People's Republic of China (PRC) intelligence asset." The lawmakers gave Huang a deadline of Wednesday to respond.
Mast and Moolenaar told reporters on Thursday that they received a response. Mast said Huang indicated he's willing to appear. Moolenaar said that Huang's resignation "does change the dynamic" surrounding his potential testimony. Republicans still control Congress until January.
"I think right now our goal is to get him in as soon as possible, so that we have a full understanding of the facts and get to the bottom of the truth of this situation," Moolenaar said.
Huang's resignation from the company he co-founded has not dampened calls from members of Congress for answers about Nvidia's relationship with Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center company that gained access to highly prized chips that are banned from being exported to China. Megaspeed is under investigation in the U.S. and Singapore for allegedly smuggling those chips into China.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CBS News that he expects "there'll be an interest in doing oversight" in the upper chamber as well. Asked whether he wants Huang to testify, Thune said, "I think that it would make sense because of the, again, the nature of the association and the governments and the national security interests, what we're talking about here."
Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said on CNBC on Thursday that he would happily support subpoenaing Huang moments before Nvidia announced his resignation. A Cramer spokesperson said he would still support subpoenaing the tech founder.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Democrats have questions for the Trump administration, too.
"Despite Jensen Huang's resignation, Congress must demand answers from Mr. Huang and others at Nvidia about how they may have put U.S. national security at risk," Schumer said on X. "The Trump administration must also answer for what it did once it learned about Mr. Huang's relationship with a suspected Chinese intelligence asset."
President Trump, a friend of Huang's, has downplayed the scandal and said Thursday that Huang had done a "fantastic job."
"NOW THAT Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place — TIM COOK of Apple," the president posted to Truth Social.
