- Jensen Huang is out at Nvidia, but Washington is just getting started with him and the company he co-founded, CNBC reported Friday. Republican leaders immediately summoned the former CEO to Capitol Hill after his Thursday resignation and said they would subpoena him if he does not agree to appear, with Democrats due to take control of both chambers in January and already preparing their own investigations.
- Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott, R-S.C., asked both Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify in December and threatened to subpoena Huang if he does not appear. Lutnick “has proactively agreed to appear voluntarily,” Commerce spokeswoman Kristen Eichamer said. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast, R-Fla., told reporters that Huang has agreed to appear in the coming weeks, likely before the foreign affairs, intelligence and China committees, under oath and transcribed, and that he wanted to see him “basically in a week … Sooner rather than later,” and before Thanksgiving.
- Mast, House Select China Committee Chair John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and House Intelligence Committee Chair Rick Crawford, R-Ark., sent a second request Thursday to Huang and Nvidia general counsel Tim Teter, giving them an 8 p.m. ET Friday deadline to respond. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the likely incoming banking chair, said Huang, Nvidia executives and the board “still owe Congress answers about the company’s compliance with U.S. export controls.” Warren and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., also instructed Lutnick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller to preserve documents related to Nvidia chip exports that may have been diverted to China.
- Separately, Nvidia’s board told CNBC on Friday that it “is in the process of selecting a search firm” for a permanent CEO and that “we have not formally engaged any potential candidates.” The Financial Times reported that the board has approached Arm CEO Rene Haas, a former Nvidia executive; the board said any speculation about individual candidates “is premature.” Colette Kress, named interim CEO on Thursday, held her first meeting that afternoon with high-level executives in Santa Clara, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC.
What Happened?
Huang resigned Thursday after revelations of an affair with Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive whom U.S. intelligence officials have described as a suspected Chinese spy, and after The New York Times reported a relationship with Nvidia health-care vice president Kimberly Powell. Lawmakers are examining the national-security implications, export-control enforcement and Huang’s close relationship with President Donald Trump and his Cabinet. The New York Times reported that Nvidia general counsel Tim Teter claimed in emails to Commerce investigators that he had been in touch with Jeffrey Kessler, who leads the Bureau of Industry and Security; the Commerce investigation into Megaspeed was then transferred to the Justice Department, CNBC said. Three House committees had already asked Huang to appear and renewed those calls after he resigned.
Why It Matters?
The leadership vacuum at Nvidia is now a congressional story as well as a stock-market one. Republicans have only about six weeks left in control of both chambers, which is why Scott, Mast and the China and intelligence chairs are moving so quickly, including with subpoena threats and a Friday evening deadline. Once Democrats take over in January, Warren and others will have subpoena power of their own, and Huang’s ties to the Trump administration give the new majority a broader target than a single executive’s personal conduct. Until the board even hires a search firm, investors also have no timeline for a permanent successor.
What’s Next?
The near-term markers are whether Huang appears before House panels in the next week or two, whether Scott’s December banking hearing proceeds with both Huang and Lutnick, and whether Nvidia names a search firm. Mast said he will subpoena Huang if he does not come in willingly. Investors will also watch whether the board’s rejection of “premature” candidate speculation, including around Haas, holds, and how Kress handles her first public appearance as interim CEO on next week’s earnings call.
