Three House Republican committee chairs have asked Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang to brief Congress behind closed doors about his reported ties to a woman accused of spying for China2.
Reps. Brian J. Mast (R-Fla.), John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), and Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) sent Huang a letter on Thursday requesting a joint briefing with the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and the Select Committee on Intelligence. The letter states that recent reports raise national security concerns regarding Chinese access to sensitive U.S. technology and information, and that determining the extent to which U.S. national security has been placed at risk is vital to the committees' investigative work.
The request follows reporting that Huang purportedly had a close relationship with Alice Huang, a businesswoman accused of spying for China. Officials in at least three countries had concerns that Alice Huang was passing information to the Chinese government, potentially including sensitive details on Nvidia chips, according to prior Wall Street Journal reporting cited by Axios. President Trump was briefed by intelligence officials about the relationship and the espionage allegations but chose not to act, per prior New York Times reporting also cited by Axios.
Nvidia has denied the allegations, saying Jensen Huang and Alice Huang's contacts were routine business interactions. The Chinese government previously called the allegations that it was spying on Nvidia groundless speculation.
ANALYSIS The congressional inquiry lands at a moment when Nvidia's position in the U.S.-China technology competition is already under scrutiny from multiple directions, with Beijing recently blocking SoftBank's acquisition of ABB's robotics business in China over AI data concerns[2]. A closed-door briefing, if it occurs, would mark the most direct congressional engagement with Huang personally on the espionage allegations to date.