Democrats Press Trump on Alleged Spy Warning About Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang

US Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer accused President Donald Trump of failing to act on an intelligence warning involving Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, saying the president had been briefed more than a year ago about Huang’s reported relationship with a woman suspected of working for Chinese intelligence.

Schumer alleged in a post on X that Trump subsequently took Huang to Beijing, followed his advice on allowing China access to US artificial intelligence chips and accepted a $25 million donation from Nvidia. He called for immediate answers from the White House over what he described as Trump’s “failure to protect our national security”.

Trump has publicly defended Huang, calling him a “very high-quality person” and praising Nvidia’s Blackwell chip. The president said he hoped there had been no national security breach and said Huang and his family were “suffering greatly” from the fallout.

House Democrats press Lutnick on AI chip exports

Three Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Gabe Amo of Rhode Island, Gregory W. Meeks of New York and Sydney Kamlager-Dove of California, asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to explain the Trump administration’s decisions on licences for advanced AI chips, The New York Times reported.

“You cannot claim to be protecting American leadership in artificial intelligence while allowing our most advanced technology to reach a strategic competitor,” the lawmakers wrote. They argued that access to the chips could help China develop the computing power needed for AI, military modernisation and economic competition.

The Times reported that the Commerce Department had approved licences for shipments of advanced hardware to entities linked to Beijing, including military contractors and blacklisted firms. The US restricts exports of Nvidia’s most powerful chips to China, a policy Jensen Huang has publicly challenged.

Nvidia appoints former federal prosecutor to lead inquiry

Nvidia said independent members of its board had hired Joon H. Kim, a former acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, and his law firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, to conduct the investigation announced on Sunday. Huang acknowledged the affair in a video address and said he would remain in charge during the inquiry.

The New York Times, citing people briefed on intelligence matters, reported that Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data centre company Megaspeed, allegedly worked on behalf of China’s Ministry of State Security. According to the report, she was tasked with gathering information about Nvidia’s advanced AI chip architecture and helping Beijing acquire technology. Megaspeed bought Nvidia hardware and built data centres across Southeast Asia that served mainland Chinese companies, including Alibaba.

Republicans on three congressional panels are also seeking answers from Jensen Huang behind closed doors, the Times reported. Lawmakers want to examine his dealings with Alice Huang and whether sensitive Nvidia information may have been disclosed.

With inputs from ANI