Lutnick under fire as Nvidia chips leak to China, Huang ties questioned

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is taking heat over whether his China ties and his friendship with Nvidia's ousted CEO Jensen Huang let billions in AI chip sales slip past his own agency. CBS News has learned critics are asking exactly that, as Huang's resignation Thursday — amid reports of a growing number of affairs — throws the world's dominant AI chipmaker into fresh uncertainty.

At the center of the storm is Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based firm that became one of Nvidia's biggest AI chip customers and is suspected of illegally shipping the most advanced chips to Chinese entities, skirting a U.S. ban. Alice Huang, no relation to Jensen Huang, ran the company, and U.S. officials believe she is a Chinese spy. The New York Times reported that about a year ago Trump was briefed on intelligence suggesting she was a Chinese asset who had grown close to Jensen Huang.

In 2024, under the Biden administration, Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security opened a probe into Nvidia's chip sales to Megaspeed to see if they were being rerouted to China. According to the Times, the investigation was abruptly transferred to the Justice Department, which declined to comment. Commerce hasn't added a single company to its Entity List since October 2025 — and last week Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confronted Lutnick over the failure to put Megaspeed on it, Axios reported.

Chris McGuire of the Council on Foreign Relations didn't mince words: “The real scandal here is the lack of enforcement of export controls.” He said Commerce had known for as long as a year that Megaspeed was run by a woman believed to be a Chinese spy, “and they did nothing.” His verdict on Lutnick: “Either Lutnick doesn't know how to do his job or he is protecting Huang.” Commerce did not respond to a request for comment.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, demanded Thursday that Lutnick and his deputy Jeffrey Kessler — the undersecretary who led the Megaspeed probe — “explain why they have not closed export control loopholes,” and urged them to “act today to ensure our advanced technology is not fueling China's military.” Back in March, she wrote to Lutnick pressing him to “immediately pause” all export licenses for Nvidia chips headed to China.

Before Trump tapped him for Commerce, Lutnick ran Cantor Fitzgerald, which held about $1.2 billion in Nvidia stock at the time. He struck up a warm rapport with Huang, who told podcaster Joe Rogan that Lutnick opened their first meeting with, “Jensen, this is Secretary Lutnick. I just want to let you know that you're a national treasure. Nvidia is a national treasure. And whenever you need access to the president, the administration, you call us.” Huang said the secretary's office was “always available” whenever he called. He attended a $1 million-per-person dinner at Mar-a-Lago in April 2025 and pushed Trump to lift restrictions on H20 chip sales to China, according to the Times; less than three months later, in July 2025, Trump did. Nvidia's top-tier Blackwell chip still can't be sold directly to China.