Congress Summons Nvidia's Jensen Huang Over Chinese Espionage Fears

Congress wants Jensen Huang in the hot seat. Lawmakers have summoned Nvidia's chief executive to answer questions about Chinese espionage, pressing him on the security protocols the chip giant uses to fend off what they call "foreign adversary espionage."

Nvidia isn't backing down. The company said its regional cloud customers only receive ordinary business information, not sensitive Nvidia trade secrets, and that they get zero information relevant to national security. It also pointed out that Huang travels with an "outstanding security team."

One detail raised eyebrows: the New York Times reported that Huang never received a "defensive briefing" — the heads-up the intelligence community typically, though not always, gives potential espionage targets to warn them about activity aimed their way. Nvidia said it's confident the US government would have told the company if it considered someone a threat to American industry, and noted it regularly gets updates from Washington about people of concern.

The scrutiny isn't new. The US previously looked into Megaspeed, a 2023 spin-off from a Chinese gaming company, over potential chip smuggling, though no charges followed. According to people familiar with the matter, Nvidia ran unannounced on-site inspections at Megaspeed's Singapore operations once it learned of US concerns, and the internal probe turned up no evidence its chips were diverted into China.

Nvidia's supply chain keeps drawing attention as US export controls push more smuggling of its chips. Earlier this year, Wally Liaw, a co-founder of key Nvidia partner Supermicro, was arrested in the US and charged with smuggling Nvidia chips into China. He denies any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty.

Now the spotlight swings to Huang himself, with lawmakers set to grill the face of the AI boom over how well his company guards its crown jewels.