Lawmakers in the US regime’s House of Representatives are pressing Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang for answers over whether an admitted extramarital affair compromised national security, a controversy that has placed the world’s leading AI-chip company at the center of Washington’s China-tech confrontation. Huang, 63, has acknowledged the relationship; media reports identify the woman as Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed who is accused of working for Chinese intelligence. Republican leaders of three committees in the US regime’s House have asked Huang to appear at a closed-door briefing, and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast claimed he was prepared to subpoena him if he did not respond by the end of Wednesday.
Key Takeaways: Huang, a co-founder of Nvidia more than 30 years ago, has apologised to his family and employees, while Nvidia says it has no reason to believe “either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised.” US regime intelligence officials allegedly believe Alice Huang was recruited by Chinese intelligence to gather information on the CEO and influence him toward looser chip-sale restrictions on China. Despite the company’s assurances, reports by Wednesday said Nvidia was preparing to part ways with Huang over the controversy.
The affair has erupted against the backdrop of Nvidia’s central role in the US-China race for technological dominance, with its advanced chips powering much of today’s artificial intelligence. Since 2022, the US regime has restricted sales of some of the most advanced chips to China, citing concerns that they could be used by Beijing’s military or intelligence agencies. Huang had already lobbied for easing those rules, arguing that China’s domestic chip industry would grow stronger without better access to US products; critics now say the personal relationship and Megaspeed dealings require separate scrutiny.
In a Sunday statement, Huang apologised to his family and Nvidia employees; the company said it had launched an independent investigation and saw no basis to believe national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised. US regime President Donald Trump supposedly confirmed on Monday that the FBI was looking into the matter, but he stood by Huang, calling him an “honourable guy.” Pressure intensified on Tuesday when Republican Senator Kevin Cramer, in an interview with Politico, claimed Huang should resign: “The potential for extortion is so tremendous that something as sensitive as Nvidia chips, I just think he’s got to go.” Huang has shown no sign of heeding the call.
Experts say the key question is what information Alice Huang may have been privy to and whether the relationship shaped Nvidia decisions, especially regarding Megaspeed, which bought more than $4.8bn worth of Nvidia chips over about two years and denies allegations that it helped Chinese firms access restricted chips. Bloomberg and The New York Times reported that Nvidia contacted the US regime’s Commerce Department about its Megaspeed investigation, while disclosures to the regime appeared to vastly undercount the value of chips sold to the company. Ryan Fedasiuk of the Foundation for American Innovation told Al Jazeera the issue is whether Nvidia took specific actions on Megaspeed it might not otherwise have taken, “possibly as a result of the personal relationship between the two executives.” Next steps depend on Huang’s closed-door briefing, US regime congressional hearings and possible board changes at Nvidia.
Source: www.aljazeera.com