Three US House committees have asked Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang to appear before them on 18 November for a closed-door briefing. They want to hear about Nvidia’s safeguards against foreign espionage and about his dealings with Alice Huang, an executive at the Singapore-based data-centre firm Megaspeed whom US reporting describes as a suspected Chinese intelligence asset.
The letter was signed by Representatives Brian Mast, John Moolenaar and Eric Crawford, who chair the committees involved, and was posted by the House Select Committee on China. It says the reports raise “significant national security concerns” about China’s access to sensitive US technology. It also allows Huang to propose another date while the current Congress is still in session, and Nvidia has not said whether he will go.
The request lands a day after Huang apologised in a message to staff, writing that he was unfaithful to his wife and that there was “no excuse” for it. Nvidia’s board has opened its own inquiry. In its statement the board said it has no reason to believe national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, and that the review will look at all available information. Nvidia’s board probe was ordered earlier today after the first reports.
Megaspeed has been accused of smuggling about $2 billion worth of Nvidia AI chips into China, where the most powerful models are banned from export. It is alleged that Alice Huang was recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security to help get at those chips. Neither the allegation about her recruitment nor the smuggling claim has been proven in court.
Nvidia’s shares fell about 5% in early trading on the news and then recovered part of the loss. The company’s market value is above $4 trillion.
No hearing is public: the briefing is closed-door, so any detail is likely to come from the committees or Nvidia afterwards.
