House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast asked Jeffrey Kessler, the Commerce Department undersecretary for industry and security, to appear at a committee hearing on 3 December, Roll Call reported on 12 November. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott has separately sought testimony from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Key points
- Mast has asked Kessler to appear at a House hearing on 3 December; Scott has asked Lutnick to testify before the Senate Banking Committee on 10 December.
- Kessler had expressed interest in inviting then-Nvidia chief Jensen Huang to speak at a BIS conference, according to people familiar with the planning.
- House committees are seeking interviews with Huang and Nvidia’s general counsel as lawmakers examine possible chip diversion and Chinese intelligence access.
Kessler and the BIS conference
Kessler had expressed interest in inviting Huang to speak at BIS’s annual conference, scheduled for 10 January in Washington, Bloomberg reported in The Japan Times, citing people familiar with the private discussions. Those people said Kessler had boasted that he could secure Huang’s attendance, although the then-Nvidia chief later ceased to be a prospective speaker. A BIS spokesperson said invitations had not yet gone out and conference planning was continuing.
The invitation discussions concern the head of the agency responsible for administering the controls that Congress is examining. Huang resigned as Nvidia’s chief executive on 12 November after revelations of an affair with Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based Nvidia customer Megaspeed whom US officials suspect of spying for China, Bloomberg reported. Commerce had been investigating Megaspeed for possible export-control violations. Megaspeed has denied wrongdoing.
Lawmakers’ questions also reach decisions made above BIS. Senator Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican, called for Lutnick to appear before the Senate Banking Committee, saying members had “a lot of bipartisan questions and concerns about what’s happened over the last year”, Bloomberg reported. Axios reported that President Donald Trump approved action against suspected diversion of Nvidia chips to China on at least three occasions — in May, August and earlier in November — but that Lutnick delayed acting on the directive. The account concerns proposed enforcement action, rather than a finding that the suspected diversions occurred.
House committees seek Nvidia interviews
Mast’s request to Kessler is one part of a wider House inquiry. Mast, House select China committee Chairman John Moolenaar and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford also wrote to Huang seeking a closed-door, transcribed interview on 1 December, Roll Call reported. They sought a similar interview with Nvidia general counsel Tim Teter on 2 December. Moolenaar said the committees were negotiating a date with Huang and would subpoena him if he did not agree to one.
Moolenaar said lawmakers needed to examine possible chip diversion, what privileged information Chinese intelligence might have obtained through Huang and whether it had tried to influence US policy. Senate Majority Leader John Thune supported an investigation of Huang’s potential influence on AI and chip policy, while cautioning against assumptions about the closeness of Huang’s relationship with Trump. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called for a classified briefing for members of Congress on the Nvidia matter. Mast has also said Huang agreed to testify before Thanksgiving.
Scott seeks Lutnick on 10 December
Congress is considering a separate route for changing the controls themselves. A proposed amendment to the Senate’s fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act bill, S 4784, includes requirements for chip-security mechanisms to verify diversion to countries of concern and a ban on exports of certain powerful chips to those countries, Roll Call reported. The House bill contains no equivalent language. House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers told reporters he favoured including semiconductor export controls in the legislation and that the Huang scandal had not changed his position.
The hearing requests instead address how Commerce has used its existing authority. Scott wrote to Huang seeking his appearance at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on 3 December. He also asked Lutnick to testify before the committee on 10 December about public reports concerning Nvidia and the department’s role. AI Affairs previously reported Scott’s requests for separate hearings. Scott has sought Lutnick’s testimony at the 10 December hearing.
