House Democrats opened an inquiry Thursday into how the Trump administration handled Nvidia's chip sales to China, the same day the company removed chief executive Jensen Huang. Huang, who founded Nvidia, was ousted after admitting to an extramarital affair with a woman accused of being a Chinese spy, and he has since been accused of additional affairs with Nvidia employees. He also agreed Thursday to testify before a separate group of Republican-led congressional committees.
The inquiry comes from Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee. Because Democrats are the minority party, the two can ask questions but cannot compel answers. Their letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick asks the department to preserve records about an arrangement they consider questionable and allege is illegal.
As the letter describes it, President Trump agreed to allow sales of Nvidia's H200 chips to China provided the chips, manufactured in Taiwan, were first shipped to the United States. On arrival, Trump added a tariff that effectively took a cut of Nvidia's China sales through what the letter calls an apparently unconstitutional export tax system, after which the Commerce Department under Lutnick issued an export license. The revenue-sharing deal between Trump and Nvidia was public: in August 2025, Nvidia and AMD each agreed to give the U.S. government 15% of revenue from chip sales to China in exchange for export licenses, the AP reported at the time.
The letter questions why Lutnick kept allowing Megaspeed, a Singapore-based Nvidia customer that U.S. officials suspect of helping route advanced Nvidia chips into China, to buy chips after he was reportedly informed by U.S. intelligence about suspicions surrounding Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive, and her relationship with Jensen Huang. It also asks why the department reportedly approved other Asian companies to buy Nvidia chips despite having no physical presence at their listed addresses. The inquiry therefore targets the administration, not only Nvidia and Huang.
The letter further asks how Nvidia's donations to Trump's projects factored in, noting the export deal was approved after Trump learned of Huang's compromised position and after Nvidia donated $26 million toward Trump's projects, including the ballroom. It appears to ask whether Trump used his knowledge of the affair to secure donations from Nvidia. In a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday, Trump mentioned that he and his team had threatened an unnamed AI executive with jail, after which the executive totally changed.
The congressional investigation into Nvidia's China sales and its dealings with Trump is the second since news of the alleged spy affair broke. The Republican-led group includes leaders from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the House Intelligence Committee; it had demanded Huang testify in a closed-door session and threatened a subpoena if he did not agree voluntarily.
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