US lawmakers pressed Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang to resign on 11 November, while House committee chairs considered compelling him to testify about allegations involving a woman suspected of links to Chinese intelligence and Nvidia’s China business. Senator Kevin Cramer, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, told CNBC that Huang should leave. The pressure comes as senators discuss proposals to restrict exports of advanced AI chips to China.
Key points
- Cramer and two House members have called for Huang to step down.
- Three House committee chairs requested Huang’s testimony for 18 November. Mast said a subpoena was under consideration. Moolenaar cited all three committees’ subpoena powers and interest in investigating.
- Lawmakers are considering whether three chip-export bills should go into the year-end National Defense Authorization Act.
- Nvidia’s board has begun an independent investigation into reports that Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort.
Cramer’s call and Nvidia’s board inquiry
“As a matter of his own conscience, he should resign,” Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, said on 11 November. He raised the possibility that knowledge of Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang could be used for blackmail. Alice Huang and Jensen Huang are not related. Cramer’s argument concerned the risk he believes the relationship creates for a company involved in sensitive semiconductor matters, rather than a finding by an investigator.
Bloomingbit reported that Cramer’s resignation call had been published on 10 November. CNBC reported his comments on 11 November. Larry Kudlow, a former director of the White House National Economic Council, also said on Fox Business that Huang “should step down immediately”.
On 8 November, Huang told Nvidia employees he had been unfaithful to his wife, without giving details of the relationship. “I was unfaithful to my wife,” he wrote, according to CBS News. On 29 October, The New York Times reported that US intelligence officials were concerned Alice Huang, a businesswoman linked to the Singapore-based data-centre company Megaspeed, was acting on behalf of Chinese intelligence, according to a Reuters account of the case. Concern reported by intelligence officials is not a determination that she worked for an intelligence service.
Nvidia’s board began an independent investigation into reports that its chief executive had been targeted by a foreign intelligence effort. Bloomingbit reported that independent directors are handling the inquiry with assistance from lawyers. CBS News reported separately that Huang is among the company’s 11 directors. Its account of Nvidia’s regulatory filing said the other board members are considered independent.
House committees weigh a Huang subpoena
Brian Mast, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, John Moolenaar, chair of the House committee on China, and Rick Crawford, chair of the House intelligence panel, requested Huang’s testimony in a letter dated 4 November. AI Affairs previously reported the House Republicans’ request.
Mast and Moolenaar said on 11 November that they had not heard from Huang and were giving him until the end of that day to respond. Asked whether they might subpoena him if he did not agree to appear, Mast said yes. Moolenaar said all three committees had subpoena power and wanted to investigate the matter. A subpoena would replace a request for Huang’s appearance with a compulsory demand, but the chairs described it as an option under consideration.
The calls for Huang to leave also came from both parties in the House. Suhas Subramanyam, the senior Democrat on the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Military and Foreign Affairs, said that “Jensen Huang should resign from Nvidia.” He questioned Huang’s position on exporting chips to China and called for an investigation into Nvidia’s dealings with the country. Republican Don Bacon likewise said Huang should step down and that he believed the executive had allowed himself to be compromised by the Chinese government. Those are the lawmakers’ assessments of the allegations.
Three bills enter the NDAA discussion
The Senate Banking Committee is discussing restrictions on advanced semiconductor exports to China. Lawmakers are considering whether to include the AI OVERWATCH Act, the Chip Security Act and the MATCH Act in the year-end National Defense Authorization Act. Bloomingbit described the legislation under discussion as restricting advanced semiconductor exports to China. Their inclusion remains under consideration: committee discussion does not itself change the rules governing shipments.
Chip sales to China were a policy dispute before the allegations about Huang became public. Huang opposed strict export controls on AI chips. Reuters reported that President Donald Trump said in December 2025 that the US would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China after an agreement with the company. The same account recorded Trump awarding Huang the National Medal of Science on 8 October 2026.
The proposed legislation and the House inquiry give lawmakers separate ways to pursue their concerns: one concerns the rules for exporting chips, while the other concerns Huang’s testimony. Mast, Moolenaar and Crawford have asked Huang to appear before their committees on 18 November.
