Democrats launch Nvidia investigation, write scathing letter on Huang’s ‘scheme’ with Trump

Summary

• Democrats opened an inquiry into how the Trump administration handled Nvidia's chip sales to China.
• Jensen Huang was removed as CEO of Nvidia after confessing to an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, a woman accused of being a Chinese spy.
• Alice Huang was an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company suspected of routing advanced Nvidia chips into China.
• The Democratic inquiry is led by Rep. Richard Neal and Sen. Ron Wyden, who can ask questions but cannot compel answers.
• A letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick requests the preservation of records regarding a questionable arrangement involving H200 chip sales.
• The alleged scheme involved President Trump requiring chips to be shipped to the U.S. first, where a tariff was added before an export license was issued.
• Nvidia and AMD agreed in August 2025 to share 15% of revenue from chip sales to China with the U.S. government to secure export licenses.
• The inquiry questions why the Commerce Department allowed Megaspeed to buy chips after intelligence reports suspected Alice Huang and Jensen Huang's relationship.
• The letter also questions why the department approved sales to other Asian companies with no physical presence at their listed addresses.
• The investigation examines whether Nvidia's $26 million donation to Trump's projects factored into the approval of the export deal after Trump learned of the affair.
• President Trump stated in a "60 Minutes" interview that he and his team threatened an unnamed AI executive with jail, after which the executive changed their position.
• This is the second congressional investigation into Nvidia's China sales following the spy affair allegations.
• A Republican-led group of committees demanded Jensen Huang testify in a closed-door session and threatened a subpoena.
• Jensen Huang agreed to testify to the Republican-led committees after his resignation from Nvidia.