Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has agreed to testify before the Senate Banking Committee on Dec. 10 amid growing bipartisan scrutiny over the Commerce Department's oversight of Nvidia chip exports to China, following the resignation of CEO Jensen Huang.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has agreed to appear voluntarily before the Senate Banking Committee on Dec. 10 to answer questions about the Commerce Department's oversight of Nvidia chip exports to China, as congressional scrutiny over the scandal surrounding ousted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang continues to widen.
Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott sent letters to both Lutnick and Huang on Thursday evening, requesting them to testify in separate hearings — Huang on Dec. 3 and Lutnick on Dec. 10. Scott's letter to Lutnick cited "recent public reports about NVIDIA and the Department of Commerce's role that raises national security concerns."
"Secretary Lutnick has proactively agreed to appear voluntarily before the Banking Committee to address their questions," Kristen Eichamer, a spokesperson for Lutnick, said in a statement to NBC News on Thursday.
Huang resigned Thursday as CEO of Nvidia after reports emerged of multiple extramarital affairs, including one with an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company that purchased more than $4.8 billion in advanced Nvidia AI chips over the past two years. The affair raised immediate national security questions about whether sensitive chip technology reached Chinese entities through that relationship. A separate affair with a senior Nvidia executive was also reported.
President Donald Trump called Huang ahead of the resignation and urged him to fight for his job, according to two people briefed on the conversation.
Scott's letter to Huang stated that reports about his relationship with the alleged Chinese spy "raise significant national security concerns," underscoring how the personal scandal has escalated into a matter of national security policy.
Bipartisan pressure on the Commerce Department has intensified in the days since the reports emerged. Sen. Jim Banks was among the most pointed in his criticism, saying on Fox News on Thursday that Lutnick "appears to have used loopholes to allow some of these chip sales to occur."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is set to chair the Senate Banking Committee beginning in January, called on both Lutnick and Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler to "explain why they have not closed export control loopholes and act today to ensure our advanced technology is not fueling China's military."
In a joint letter published Wednesday, Warren and incoming Senate Foreign Relations Chair Chris Coons demanded that all documents relating to the export of Nvidia chips to China be preserved. Separately, Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Richard E. Neal wrote to Lutnick stating they were investigating the approval of sales to companies with ties to the Chinese government, military, and sanctioned entities.
Rep. Brian Mast said on Thursday that Congress needed to investigate the Commerce Department's role in approving AI chip exports to China, though he added that he maintained confidence in Lutnick personally.
The scrutiny comes against a broader backdrop of unresolved questions about the administration's approach to export controls. Criticism had already been building over the administration's decision to decline adding more than 100 companies flagged as national security risks — including Chinese AI startup DeepSeek and memory chipmaker CXMT — to a trade blacklist, according to reporting published in June.
Lutnick, a long-standing confidant of Trump whose relationship with the president spans more than three decades, is now at the center of a congressional investigation that cuts across both chambers and both parties. The Dec. 10 hearing will be among the most closely watched of the year, with lawmakers pressing for answers on whether export control enforcement kept pace with the rapid expansion of Nvidia's chip sales abroad.
Jay Goldberg is a staff writer at TechEchelon covering technology, markets, and policy. He files the breaking news and deal coverage that move the publication's core desks.
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