House GOP asks Nvidia's Huang to brief Congress on reported China spy link

Three Republican committee chairs in the House have asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to appear for a private joint briefing, according to a letter made public Thursday. They want to hear about his contacts with Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive, and about how Nvidia guards against foreign espionage. The letter is dated Wednesday.

The signers are Brian Mast of Foreign Affairs, John Moolenaar of the Select Committee on China and Rick Crawford of Intelligence. They wrote that recent reports raise serious national-security concerns about Beijing's access to sensitive U.S. technology. The letter did not name the reports.

The New York Times reported last week that U.S. intelligence concluded Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen, was passing information to Beijing and had built a close relationship with Jensen Huang. The Times also reported that President Donald Trump was briefed on those findings about a year ago and opted not to act on them.

Nvidia did not directly answer CNBC's questions about the letter or say whether its CEO will attend. A spokesperson said regional cloud customers get routine business information, not Nvidia trade secrets, and nothing tied to national security. The spokesperson added that customer meetings are part of a CEO's job and that the company trusts the U.S. government would flag any person it deemed a threat.

Lawmakers proposed an in-person joint briefing on Nov. 18, one day after Nvidia is set to report third-quarter earnings. Mast's spokeswoman did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for more information, and Megaspeed did not immediately return an email seeking comment.