Huang out at Nvidia as Democrats launch China chip inquiry

Jensen Huang is out at Nvidia. The co-founder was removed as CEO on Thursday after admitting to an extramarital affair, amid reports he was involved with a woman accused of being a Chinese spy — and he's since faced further accusations of affairs with Nvidia employees, per TechCrunch's reporting. The same day, Democrats opened their own inquiry into how the Trump administration handled Nvidia's chip sales to China. Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrats on the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees, sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick asking his department to preserve records tied to an arrangement they call questionable and, they allege, illegal. As the minority party, they can ask questions but can't force answers. The letter lays out the alleged playbook: Trump approved sales of Nvidia's H200 chips to China on the condition the Taiwan-made chips land in the U.S. first, then slapped on a tariff that the Democrats say amounts to an unconstitutional export tax skimming Nvidia's China sales. Commerce, under Lutnick, then issued the export license. The revenue-sharing side was no secret — in August 2025, Nvidia and AMD each agreed to hand the U.S. government 15% of their China chip revenue to lock in export licenses, the AP reported at the time. What the letter really wants to know is why Lutnick kept letting Megaspeed buy chips after U.S. intelligence reportedly told him about suspicions surrounding Alice Huang, an executive at the Singapore-based Nvidia customer, and her relationship with Jensen Huang. U.S. officials suspect Megaspeed of helping funnel advanced Nvidia chips into China. Democrats also want answers on why Commerce reportedly cleared other Asian companies to buy Nvidia chips despite having "no physical presence at their listed addresses." Nvidia's money is in the crosshairs too. The letter notes the export deal went through after Trump learned of what it calls Huang's "compromised position," and after Nvidia donated $26 million to Trump's projects, the ballroom included — framing it as a question of whether Trump traded on what he knew. On "60 Minutes" Sunday, Trump mentioned threatening an unnamed AI executive with jail, saying the exec "totally changed" afterward. This is the second Congressional probe to land since the spy story broke. A Republican-led group spanning the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, House Foreign Affairs and House Intelligence had demanded Huang testify behind closed doors and threatened a subpoena if he refused. After his resignation Thursday, he agreed to show up.

summary: Democrats are digging into Nvidia's China chip sales, with Rep. Richard Neal and Sen. Ron Wyden demanding Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick preserve records on a deal they call an illegal export tax scheme involving Trump. It lands the same day Jensen Huang was ousted as Nvidia's CEO over an affair with a woman accused of being a Chinese spy. A Republican-led committee has already lined up Huang for closed-door testimony.