US House panels ask Jensen Huang to appear Dec. 1 as chip export inquiry widens

Three U.S. House committees have asked Nvidia founder Jensen Huang to appear for a closed-door interview on December 1. In a letter dated November 12, the chairs said the interview would be transcribed and that the House Foreign Affairs Committee would issue a subpoena if Huang failed to confirm in writing by 8 p.m. Eastern on November 13. Nvidia announced his resignation as chief executive and a director on the day of the letter.

The chairs also asked Nvidia’s top lawyer to appear separately, and the Foreign Affairs chairman sought testimony from a senior U.S. Commerce Department official. That extends the questioning to the company’s role in chip export policy and the government’s enforcement of it. For chip suppliers and data center operators that follow U.S. licensing of advanced AI accelerators, the letters identify the transactions and enforcement decisions lawmakers want to examine.

A new date and separate questions for Nvidia’s top lawyer

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast, House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar and House Intelligence Chairman Rick Crawford first wrote to Huang on November 4. They asked him to attend a private briefing on November 18 or propose another date while Congress was in session. They asked him to respond by November 11. Their questions concerned Nvidia’s security procedures and Huang’s contacts with an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company.

Alongside the revised request to Huang, the chairs sent a separate letter to Tim Teter, Nvidia’s general counsel, asking him to appear on December 2. Teter received the same deadline to reply in writing. His letter also says other committees could issue subpoenas of their own, including to compel testimony at a public hearing.

The questions for Teter cover suspected diversion of AI chips, military use of Nvidia products by U.S. adversaries and reports that the company intervened in export policy or investigations, including inquiries involving Megaspeed. The committee has yet to publish findings on those questions.

Mast alone signed a third letter asking Jeffrey Kessler, the Commerce Department’s under secretary for industry and security, to appear at a hearing at 10 a.m. on December 3. He asked Kessler to address chip smuggling, reports of private companies’ interference in enforcement investigations and the Megaspeed case. The invitation states a hearing time. The 8 p.m. deadline in the two company letters falls at 10 a.m. on November 14 in South Korea.

Lawmakers seek the records behind export decisions

On November 12, Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Richard Neal, the ranking Democrats on the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees, wrote to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. They asked Commerce to preserve Nvidia’s license applications and its decisions on them, communications with the company and Huang, and the department’s records from a national security review of semiconductor imports. How officials vetted Chinese customers is among the questions the lawmakers raised.

A day earlier, senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons had sent a separate request to the Commerce Department, the State Department and the White House. They sought records on alleged diversion and decisions to relax or suspend advanced-chip export restrictions. They set a November 17 deadline for written confirmation that preservation orders had gone out.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security changed how it reviews some advanced-chip exports in January. The rule allows case-by-case consideration of applications for chips such as Nvidia’s H200 and AMD’s MI325X for customers in China and Macau when the stated conditions are met. Applicants must address U.S. supply, show that buyers have compliance procedures such as customer screening, and arrange independent testing in the United States. The records sought by Wyden and Neal would show how the department applied those requirements in individual licensing decisions.

Nvidia’s independent directors said on November 10 that they had hired former federal prosecutor Joon H. Kim and his law firm to conduct their own investigation. Nvidia appointed its chief financial officer, Colette Kress, interim CEO after Huang’s resignation. The company said Huang’s resignation took effect immediately. Its statements on the change in leadership and the hiring of outside counsel gave no timetable for releasing the investigation’s findings.