Huang Agrees to Testify Before Congress After Nvidia Ouster

Jensen Huang, who stepped down as chief executive of Nvidia earlier this year, has agreed to testify before three House committees by Thanksgiving, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast said Thursday, according to TechCrunch, which cited reports from Bloomberg and NBC News.

Huang committed to the appearance on Wednesday after several senior lawmakers warned they would issue a subpoena if he refused, TechCrunch reported. The agreement caps a week of public pressure from Capitol Hill following Huang's departure from the company he co-founded and led for more than three decades.

Why did Huang leave Nvidia?

Huang stepped down as Nvidia's chief executive following reports of an alleged affair with a woman suspected of spying for China, according to TechCrunch. The circumstances of his exit have drawn scrutiny from lawmakers who oversee national security and technology policy, given Nvidia's role as the dominant supplier of advanced chips used in artificial intelligence systems that are subject to U.S. export restrictions.

Which lawmakers requested Huang's testimony?

The push for Huang's appearance began with a letter sent November 4 by three House Republicans: Mast, who chairs the House Committee on Foreign Affairs; John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party; and Rick Crawford, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, TechCrunch reported. The three committees share jurisdiction over matters touching China policy, intelligence concerns, and technology export controls — the areas lawmakers have said they want Huang to address.

What will the testimony look like?

Mast said the session will take place behind closed doors, though he told reporters he expects the briefing to be recorded on video and transcribed, according to TechCrunch. No public hearing date has been set beyond the Thanksgiving deadline, which falls later this month.

What has Mast said about Nvidia and export policy?

Mast, who has previously clashed with Huang over chip export rules, sought to separate his criticism of Huang personally from the company Huang built. "Jensen and I have been very at odds as some of you already know on export controls, but Nvidia is a very important company to the United States of America," Mast told reporters, according to TechCrunch. "I don't want to see anything hurt in Nvidia, but he has some very serious questions to answer."

The remark signals that lawmakers intend to question Huang about the circumstances of his departure and any national-security implications, while stopping short of suggesting the inquiry is aimed at damaging Nvidia's business. Nvidia has not issued its own statement on the testimony in the material reviewed for this report, and TechCrunch's item did not include comment from the company or from Huang.

Is the China smuggling probe connected to Huang's case?

Separately, HTT News has reported that the Justice Department is investigating a woman identified as Alice Huang over alleged export-control violations tied to Super Micro Computer and China. It is not established in the available reporting whether that investigation involves the same person described in the lawmakers' November 4 letter to Jensen Huang, and TechCrunch's account of the congressional testimony does not name her. The two matters are being tracked separately pending further confirmation from investigators or congressional staff.

What happens next

With Huang's agreement to appear, the three House committees now have a working deadline of Thanksgiving to schedule the closed-door session. Mast's comments suggest lawmakers see two distinct threads: the export-control debate that has long divided Washington and the chip industry, and the specific questions raised by the circumstances of Huang's exit from Nvidia. Colette Kress was named interim replacement at Nvidia following Huang's departure, though her role was not addressed in the committees' letter or in Mast's remarks to reporters, per TechCrunch's reporting.

Neither Nvidia nor representatives for Huang were quoted in the TechCrunch item responding to the scheduled testimony, and no additional statement from Moolenaar or Crawford was included in the available reporting. HTT News will continue following developments as the committees finalize scheduling details ahead of the Thanksgiving deadline.