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One of Donald Trump’s top cabinet members has been dragged into the Nvidia scandal, as furious US lawmakers demand Howard Lutnick explain how he allowed the export of chips to a company linked to an alleged Chinese spy.
Outraged Republican lawmakers on Thursday called on Lutnick, the U.S. Commerce Secretary, to testify before Congress, while top Democrats demanded he preserve documents related to the case for investigations.
“There must be a thorough investigation and accountability for the outrageous evasion of national security export controls,” Republican Senator John Cornyn told the FT. “Heads should roll.”
The Commerce Department’s scrutiny of export controls follows the shock resignation of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang following revelations that he had extramarital affairs, including with Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based Nvidia customer Megaspeed. U.S. intelligence officials believe she was a Chinese spy.
Earlier this week, the FT reported that Lutnick’s Commerce Department had delayed efforts to add Megaspeed to Washington’s blacklist of companies the United States considers a national security risk.
U.S. companies need licenses from the Commerce Department to export goods to companies on the Entity List, part of Washington’s attempt to prevent cutting-edge technologies from falling into the hands of China’s military.
John Curtis, a Republican senator from Utah, accused Huang of “gross negligence” that had “exposed cracks in our national security.” He added that “Lutnick’s reported blockage on export controls raises the question of whether the Commerce Department is acting in the best interests of the American people.”
Darin LaHood, a Republican member of the House Committee on China, told the FT that it was “important that Secretary Lutnick testify honestly before Congress soon” and provide “detailed information on what the Commerce Department has and has not done to prevent China from acquiring cutting-edge technology.”
Pete Ricketts, a Republican senator from Nebraska, said Congress needs to hear from Commerce Department officials why action on Megaspeed was “delayed.”
Lutnick is the second Trump administration Cabinet official to come under fire from Congress this week, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth narrowly survived an impeachment vote in the House of Representatives for his role in the Iran war.
The renewed pressure from lawmakers on the Trump administration comes just a week after Republicans lost control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in the midterm elections.
The former chief executive of investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald oversaw many of Trump’s most controversial trade tariffs, including steep tariffs on steel, copper, aluminum, lumber and cars.
He was also tasked with advising the president on whether to impose taxes on a range of other sectors, including chips, pharmaceuticals and critical minerals.
Last year, the US Department of Justice took over the Commerce Department’s investigation into Megaspeed after Nvidia’s general counsel requested information about it, according to the New York Times.
Democrats also spoke. “The administration suspected Alice Huang for a year and did not put Megaspeed on the Entity List or warn Nvidia. Why not? Was our national security or Nvidia’s technology compromised?” Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the FT.
“Did the push to approve high-end chip licenses for China influence the administration’s response? We should get answers in this Congress. If we don’t, Democrats will get them next year.”
Meeks’ Democratic colleagues on the committees overseeing tax and trade issues in the Senate and House accused the Commerce Department of “a profound lack of due diligence” in their process “for approving these Chinese buyers of Nvidia chips.”
In a letter to Lutnick on Thursday, Senator Ron Wyden and Congressman Richard Neal requested that the Commerce Department preserve all records and communications related to the national security investigation into semiconductor imports, export license applications submitted by Nvidia, and all communications with and regarding the company and Huang.
Lawmakers also cited millions of dollars in donations made by Huang to “Trump’s personal priorities such as the White House Ballroom” and questioned “whether and to what extent political considerations inappropriately influence policy decisions made by the administration.”
Nvidia secretly donated $25 million to build Trump’s new ballroom at the White House in October 2025, after striking a deal with the administration to sell chips to China, according to the Washington Post. The company also donated $1 million toward Trump’s inauguration in January 2025.
Earlier Thursday, Republicans said they were in “ongoing negotiations” with Huang to testify before Congress. But Brian Mast, Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned that testimony may not take place before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday later this month.
The White House and Commerce Department did not respond to requests for comment.
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