Nvidia scandal: US lawmakers summon Jensen Huang over suspected Chinese spy links

US lawmakers have called Jensen Huang an architect of the artificial intelligence boom to face their questions in December after the Nvidia exCEO quit over extramarital affairs including one with a suspected Chinese spyThe scandal has wiped almost half a trillion dollars off Nvidias market valuation as it raises national security fears and leaves the AI industry in uncharted watersRecent reports raise serious concerns about our national security and the protection of sensitive US technology Republican Senator Tim Scott wrote Thursday on XScott said he was requesting Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify in December before the Senate Banking Committee which he chairsIt joins a call for a closeddoor interview with the leatherjacketed 63yearold Huang on December 1 by three House of Representatives committees on threat of subpoenaHuang who has been married to his wife Lori for over 40 years admitted Sunday to an affair reportedly with Alice Huang a former senior executive at Singaporebased data center company Megaspeed The two are not relatedUS intelligence reportedly circulated a memo this spring alleging she was an asset of Chinas Ministry of State Security Beijing has rejected the allegationsOn Wednesday The New York Times reported a second affair citing video of Huang being affectionate with Nvidias vice president of health care Kimberly PowellWhile Nvidias board searches for a permanent successor to Huang who spent 33 years at the helm of the firm he cofounded chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEONvidia hit gold when the launch of OpenAIs ChatGPT in 2022 sparked a global rush to develop AI with its processors once designed for video game graphics becoming a crucial ingredient to train and run the technologyNvidia did not give a reason for the departure of Huang who also gave up his board seatHuang is Nvidias largest individual shareholder with a stake of about 36 percent according to the companyThe Taiwaneseborn businessman was a close informal adviser to President Donald Trump on AI and had spent years lobbying against curbs on sales of advanced AI chips to China for national security reasonsDan Ives of investment bank Yorkville Ives called it a dark day for Nvidia and the US tech industryBut he said the board had done what it needed rip off the bandaid and take Nvidia into its next chapter without himThe board named Harvey Jones a former chief executive of chip design software firm Synopsys as chair and said it expected the companys operations and product roadmap to continue without interruptionInterim CEO Kress joined Nvidia in 2013 after nearly 25 years at companies including Cisco and MicrosoftTrump who had stood by Huang throughout the scandal said former Apple boss Tim Cook should take overA Legend replaces a Legend Trump said on his Truth Social network adding that Cook had made Apple one of the great companies of the world at a fairly short range Going through hell Singapore said Thursday it had barred Alice Huang a Chinese national from reentering the country in February for giving investigators inaccurate information about her role at Megaspeed though she was not investigated for espionageNvidias board opened a probe on Sunday into reporting that Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort while saying it retained confidence in himWhen asked Thursday if Jensen should have stepped down Trump said it would dependIf the woman was a spy yes If the woman was not a spy perhaps it would be different Trump said in an interviewBut Trump said he was confident that Huang will end up on his feet adding I spoke to him yesterday Hes going through hell What he feels most badly about is his wife and familyAt the heart of the spy allegations is the race between the United States and China for supremacy in an industry widely seen as the next industrial revolutionKey US lawmakers including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called Thursday for answers on what the Trump administration knew about Huangs ties to a suspected Chinese spy days before Trump travels to China for a summitReports allege the Commerce Department under Secretary Howard Lutnick may have failed to act on suspicions that Megaspeed was helping reroute restricted Nvidia technology to ChinaSingapores home ministry said it had repeatedly sought information from the US Justice Department and FBI on a US server supplier during its Megaspeed probe but received limited information or assistanceOn Thursday Malaysia also said Friday it was investigating a subsidiary of Megaspeed International over the possible diversion of advanced AI chips to other countriesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever