What changed
The Nvidia scandal has widened from Jensen Huang’s alleged affair with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy to a dispute inside Donald Trump’s administration over export controls.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says several agencies wanted Megaspeed placed on the US entity list for months, but Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s department controlled the decision. Congress has summoned Lutnick to testify in December and asked Commerce to preserve records involving Nvidia and Huang.
Why it matters
This is now a question about the machinery guarding America’s most sensitive technology, not only about Nvidia’s former chief executive.
Bessent said China should not receive Nvidia chips above the H100 under Trump’s policy. He also said any leakage of advanced AI chips gives China an advantage in the AI race. If Commerce delayed action while other agencies supported tighter controls, the dispute could become a test of who is accountable when export restrictions fail.
Nvidia faces scrutiny too. Bessent asked whether the company knew its customers and whether it had taken strong enough steps to stop chips moving through suspected pass-through shell companies. That remains unconfirmed, as do the allegations that Megaspeed smuggled Nvidia chips into China and the reasons for any delay by Commerce.
The next decisive moment is Lutnick’s Senate testimony in December. It should clarify who knew what, which agency held responsibility, and whether the administration’s controls were working as designed.
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