Nvidia is done with Jensen Huang. The fallout from Washington has only just begun

Jensen Huang is at Nvidia. Washington is just getting started with him and the company he co-founded.

Huang, the leather-jacketed CEO of the world’s largest chipmaker, resigned from Nvidia on Thursday after revelations that he had an affair with an alleged Chinese spy. But the spy saga is gripping Washington, and lawmakers are preparing to open investigations into how the now former CEO’s affair may have damaged U.S. dominance over artificial intelligence, the national security implications and the executive branch’s close relationship with President Donald Trump and his Cabinet.

Republicans will get their chance first in their final six weeks of control of both houses of Congress. GOP leaders immediately summoned Huang to the Capitol and told him they would subpoena him if he did not agree to appear. Come January, Democrats, who are already eager to make their mark on control when they take over the U.S. House and Senate, will be in charge.

“In this environment where the stakes are very high when it comes to our national security, I would expect there to be some follow-through, yes,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday.

Huang and the woman he allegedly had a relationship with, Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore technology company Megaspeed and suspected Chinese spy, have attracted the attention of Congress. And Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick drew criticism after reporting this week that he blocked President Donald Trump’s crackdown on companies shipping Nvidia chips to China.

Some members of Congress have also called for an investigation into the role of the Bureau of Industry and Security, a sub-agency of the Commerce Department that manages and enforces export controls, in the Huang scandal.

The New York Times reported Monday that Nvidia general counsel Tim Teter claimed in emails to Commerce investigators investigating Alice Huang’s company that he had been in contact with Jeffrey Kessler, who heads BIS. The Commerce Department’s investigation into Megaspeed, which allegedly smuggled restricted chips into China, was later transferred to the Justice Department.

On Thursday evening, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., summoned Huang and Lutnick to testify before his committee in December. Later that night, Lutnick had “proactively agreed to voluntarily appear before the banking committee to answer its questions,” Kristen Eichamer, a spokeswoman for the Commerce Department, said in a statement.

Scott threatened to subpoena Huang if he did not appear. A spokesperson for the banking panel did not immediately respond Friday morning when asked if it had heard from Huang.

“Recent reports raise serious concerns about our national security and the protection of sensitive U.S. technology,” Scott wrote to Huang. “The American people deserve answers.”

And with Democrats poised to take control of both chambers in January, the tech mogul’s close ties to the White House will add fuel to an already burning fire as the new majority pursues myriad investigations into the Trump administration.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a message to » Schumer is in a competitive race to become Senate majority leader in the next Congress.

The senators who will lead these investigations and hold subpoena power in the new Congress are preparing for Nvidia to take center stage.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., likely the new chairwoman of the Senate banking panel, said in a statement Thursday that “Mr. Huang, NVIDIA executives and the NVIDIA board still owe answers to Congress about the company’s compliance with U.S. export controls.”

Warren and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee with jurisdiction over East Asia and the Pacific, sent a letter Wednesday to Lutnick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller asking them to preserve all documents and communications related to Nvidia’s exports of “advanced AI chips to China or to entities that may divert such chips to China.”

Even before Democrats take power in January, Huang is expected to appear before Congress.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., is actively negotiating for Huang to testify before House committees and told reporters Thursday that the Nvidia CEO has agreed to appear in the coming weeks.

The details of that testimony are still being worked out, Mast said. It would likely include his committee, as well as the House Intelligence Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on China, and it would be under oath and transcribed. It is unclear at this stage whether this would be public.

“We want to see it in a week…As soon as possible,” Mast told reporters Thursday, adding that he thought it would happen before Thanksgiving.

If Huang does not appear voluntarily, Mast said he will subpoena him.

Mast, along with House China Select Committee Chairman Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., sent a second request Thursday to Huang and Teter asking them to appear and giving them a Friday 8 p.m. (ET) deadline to respond. Mast also sent a second request to Kessler.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., a ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Friday during an appearance on CNBC’s “The Exchange” that he wants answers from Huang about the national security and export implications of the case.

“From the Intelligence Committee’s perspective, you can imagine, from an AI perspective, how important this is to our national security, to our critical infrastructure and understanding, as far as chip policy goes, what exactly happened in China and…did Megaspeed misappropriate chips?” Gottheimer said.

Calls for an immediate investigation into Huang and Nvidia on the day of his resignation represent a stunning fall from grace in the halls of power for the former CEO. Huang was one of the AI ​​industry’s most effective voices in Washington — able to switch between leveraging his relationship with Trump and defending his industry against fears about AI’s risks to lawmakers.

“He’s still the TED Talk guy,” a senior Democratic official who was granted anonymity to describe private meetings he attended with Huang told CNBC. “He’s really good and articulate, and really good at explaining why AI is important and why it’s so important for the United States to lead in this area.”

The staffer said Huang was a “happy warrior” for AI and stayed longer than expected or expected to answer questions from lawmakers. But in meetings with lawmakers the aide attended, they said Huang had not pushed aggressively against export controls and was not too “deep in the weeds” to actually “press one way or the other” with lawmakers.

Huang has repeatedly publicly resisted export controls, a move that has offended some lawmakers.

Some lawmakers even lamented Huang’s loss, despite the inevitable buzz he now faces on Capitol Hill.

“It’s just sad all around,” Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said of Huang’s resignation.