The Chinese espionage controversy surrounding Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang, which ultimately led to his departure as chief executive, has now drawn scrutiny to the White House and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Questions are mounting over whether Lutnick played a role in the affair, while new reports revealed Thursday that Huang had a relationship with a second Nvidia employee. The developments came after President Donald Trump reportedly encouraged the technology executive not to step down.
Reuters reported that Huang had an intimate relationship with another woman employed by Nvidia, but did not identify her.
Huang has already acknowledged an affair with Nvidia executive Kimberly Powell, 48. He has also been linked to Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman who was under investigation over allegations that she passed information to Beijing.
The 63-year-old executive had been promoted by the Trump administration as a leading voice in artificial intelligence and maintained a close relationship with Lutnick.
After Huang admitted his relationship with Alice Huang, Trump described him as an “honorable guy” who “probably has an excuse for it.”
Two people briefed on the conversation told The New York Times that Trump also spoke with Huang on Tuesday and encouraged him to continue fighting to retain his position.
When Nvidia announced Thursday that Huang had resigned, Trump called him a “legend” in a post on Truth Social and suggested that former Apple chief executive Tim Cook could succeed him.
As Trump’s advisers debated how to respond to criticism of the administration’s handling of the scandal, some reportedly blamed Lutnick, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is facing scrutiny over his possible role in the Chinese espionage controversy that ended Jensen Huang’s tenure as Nvidia CEO
The Trump administration had presented 63-year-old Huang as a key figure in artificial intelligence. He is shown with Trump discussing investment in the United States in April 2025
Alice Huang reportedly said she had secured Jensen Huang’s approval before Megaspeed began its shipping operations
Lutnick’s critics argue that he weakened the administration’s campaign against the unauthorized shipment of US-made AI chips to Southeast Asia, potentially creating room for companies linked to Alice Huang to operate in China.
People familiar with the matter told the Journal that some of Trump’s political allies have suggested the commerce secretary effectively shielded Nvidia and Huang by failing to enforce export controls aggressively enough.
Those critics point to a Commerce Department investigation into Alice Huang’s company, Megaspeed International, which began in 2024. Although she was photographed several times with Huang, the department did not place Megaspeed on a trade blacklist, frustrating officials at the State Department and the National Security Council.
When officials at Commerce and other agencies proposed penalties against Megaspeed or other China-linked businesses, Lutnick frequently delayed or opposed action, the people told the Journal. He reportedly argued that provoking Beijing could derail trade negotiations or damage the US economy.
The controversy has now reached Congress, where lawmakers from both parties are preparing to examine Lutnick’s relationship with Huang and his approach to semiconductor export policy.
Lutnick has agreed to testify before the Senate Banking Committee, Politico reports.
In a letter sent Thursday night, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican, cited “recent public reports about Nvidia and the Department of Commerce’s role that raises national security concerns.”
“Given the Department of Commerce’s central role in issuing and enforcing export control regulations, your testimony before the Committee will be essential to our oversight of these efforts,” Scott wrote.
Republican Senator Tim Scott wrote to Lutnick on Thursday night requesting his appearance before the Senate Banking Committee
Lutnick and Huang had a close association, and one source said the commerce secretary met with the Nvidia chief roughly every three months
Scott added that “recent developments underscore the significant national security and economic interests at stake and the need for timely, substantive engagement with Congress.”
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Representative Richard Neal of Massachusetts, both Democrats, have separately informed Lutnick that they are investigating the Trump administration’s dealings with Nvidia.
The lawmakers also asked the commerce secretary to preserve documents and other records relevant to their inquiry.
Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, criticized Lutnick for allowing Huang to maintain access to Trump despite his alleged connection to a suspected Chinese operative.
“Shame on Lutnick for allowing that exposure to happen for the president,” Tillis said.
Senator Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican, separately told Fox News that Lutnick appeared to have been “defying President Trump’s orders” by declining to impose tougher restrictions on chip exports.
A Commerce Department official denied to the Journal that Lutnick and Huang shared any unusually close relationship. The official said Lutnick was simply seeking to maintain good relations with one of America’s most successful companies, although a person familiar with the secretary’s schedule said the two met nearly every quarter.
The Trump administration continues to back Lutnick. A White House spokesperson told the Journal that Trump “maintains complete confidence in the secretary and his ability to carry out the position as the most transformative Commerce Secretary in modern history.”
Lutnick has nevertheless faced friction with other Trump administration officials in the past.
Some Trump advisers have also blamed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, saying his department has not sanctioned Alice Huang or her former company, Megaspeed International
Senior advisers previously faulted Lutnick for the chaotic introduction of tariffs last year and for helping Huang and other technology executives gain access to the president.
He has also been accused of allowing Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial services company he once led before transferring control to his sons, to benefit from policies overseen by the Commerce Department. Cantor Fitzgerald has denied receiving preferential treatment.
Others have directed criticism toward Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, pointing out that the Treasury Department has not sanctioned Alice Huang or Megaspeed International.
Meanwhile, sources told the Journal that Commerce officials are accelerating a proposal aimed at demonstrating progress on chip-export enforcement by limiting shipments to Southeast Asia.
The Bureau of Industry and Security proposal would add seven countries to a group already subject to export restrictions and licensing requirements. The list would include Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, all of which have hosted data centers remotely accessed by Chinese customers.
The Justice Department is also conducting several investigations involving Alice Huang.
Although Jensen Huang announced his resignation Thursday, he remains the subject of government inquiries into his dealings with the alleged Chinese spy. Scott has warned that the former Nvidia chief could face consequences if he refuses to appear before a separate Banking Committee hearing.
US officials allege that Alice Huang worked for China’s Ministry of State Security to obtain information about American AI chips and potentially persuade Nvidia to make its most advanced semiconductors available in China
Images appear to show Alice Huang beside the 63-year-old technology executive, raising wine glasses and smiling alongside him
Scott said reports about Huang’s relationship with the alleged Chinese operative “raise significant national security concerns.”
House lawmakers have also requested answers. Representative Brian Mast, a Florida Republican and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Thursday that Huang had agreed to attend a briefing that is expected to be conducted under oath, transcribed and video recorded, although the details remain under discussion.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Huang’s resignation alone did not resolve concerns about a possible security threat.
“It was the right thing to do,” Jeffries said at a news conference Thursday. “Now, we have to get to the bottom of whether America’s national security has been compromised.”
Jeffries said Representatives Jim Himes of Connecticut, who is expected to become chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and Greg Meeks of New York, who is likely to lead the Foreign Affairs panel, would spearhead the House Democratic investigation into the national security implications of Huang’s relationships.
“We’ve seen the tip of the iceberg,” Meeks told reporters, adding that he had “other questions” and that Huang’s resignation “doesn’t make it go away.”
Alice Huang founded Megaspeed International in 2023, and US officials say the company illicitly shipped Nvidia AI chips to China
According to The New York Times, US officials allege that Alice Huang worked with China’s Ministry of State Security in an effort to gather intelligence on American-made AI chips and possibly convince Nvidia to supply its most advanced products to China.
US authorities also investigated Megaspeed over suspicions that it helped move hardware into China illegally. As part of that inquiry, the government asked Nvidia to audit the company last year.
Nvidia’s initial review concluded that all hardware had been accounted for. However, records obtained by Bloomberg News indicated that Megaspeed had imported 50,000 more chips than Nvidia identified at its data centers.
Nvidia said in December 2025 that it planned to conduct another inspection of Megaspeed’s data centers, though it remains unclear whether that review took place.
Megaspeed and Chinese officials have denied wrongdoing. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said earlier this week that the claims about “so-called Chinese spies” were based on “groundless speculation” and amounted to “slander and smearing.”
Megaspeed has said it operates “fully within the bounds of all applicable export control regulations” and follows the highest standards of legal conduct.
Jensen Huang was photographed with Alice Huang at a computer industry trade show in Taipei in 2024. Source: LinkedIn/NetThunder
Despite those denials, reports indicate that Megaspeed secured a potentially lucrative arrangement with Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce company that wanted help obtaining Nvidia chips after US export rules prevented Nvidia from selling them directly to China.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Megaspeed representatives raised the proposal with Nvidia and described Alibaba as an anchor customer. They reportedly argued that the deal could help Alice Huang and her husband, Kang Wei, gain priority access to chips as an Nvidia cloud partner in November 2023.
Soon afterward, Alice Huang reportedly told an associate that she had spoken with Jensen Huang and that Megaspeed would soon begin operations.
Megaspeed moved many of the Nvidia servers it obtained to data centers in Malaysia, where it supplied computing capacity to Alibaba.
The company also allegedly sent some chips directly to China, including to Century Litong, a Shanghai cloud-computing provider owned by a Shanghai-listed company with which Kang had previously worked, the Journal reported.
Investors approached by Alice Huang and Kang said the couple pitched several data-center ventures between late 2024 and June 2025. The proposals included two projects in Southeast Asia and another in Shanghai.
The potential investors said the pair promised returns that could triple their money within three years and expressed confidence that they had ways to move Nvidia chips into China.
The New York Times reported that Trump was informed twice about the possible national security concerns but chose not to intervene. Instead, he took Huang on a trip to China in May.
Trump reportedly believed Nvidia was too important to fail and was persuaded by Huang’s argument that the company should sell its chips as broadly as possible so that global developers would build on American technology rather than Chinese alternatives.
For the same reason, Trump opposed imposing especially strict limits on chip exports to China, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Our News Outlet has contacted the White House, the Commerce Department and the Treasury Department for comment.
RELATED: Australian GP Flees to Canada After Drug Bust at Clinic
