Lutnick Agrees to Testify Before Senate on Nvidia Chip Exports and Megaspeed Probe

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has agreed to testify before the Senate Banking Committee about Nvidia chip exports to China and the handling of the investigation into Megaspeed, the Singapore-based Nvidia customer accused of diverting advanced American AI chips to Chinese buyers.

“Secretary Lutnick has proactively agreed to appear voluntarily before the Banking Committee to address their questions,” Kristen Eichamer, a spokesperson for Lutnick, told CNN reported. A source familiar with the matter said arrangements for the testimony were still being worked out.

The decision came after Senator Tim Scott, the South Carolina Republican who chairs the committee, wrote to Lutnick and to former Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang on Thursday, 12 November, asking both men to appear at a public hearing. Scott asked Lutnick to testify on 10 December and Huang on 3 December.

What Scott asked for

Scott said the testimony was essential to the committee’s oversight of export controls, given the Commerce Department’s central role in issuing and enforcing the rules. In a post on X announcing the letters, he wrote: “Recent reports raise serious concerns about our national security and the protection of sensitive U.S. technology. I am requesting that NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick testify before the Senate Banking Committee. The American people deserve answers.”

Scott also warned Huang that the committee was prepared to use compulsory measures if he did not appear voluntarily. “Should you fail to appear before the Committee on a voluntary basis, the Committee is prepared to use all tools at our disposal, including subpoenas, to conduct this legitimate and necessary oversight,” he wrote.

Lawmakers in both parties have criticised Lutnick over the refusal to add Chinese companies to the Entity List and over the government’s oversight of Nvidia’s exports to China.

The Megaspeed investigation

At the centre of the controversy is Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based Nvidia customer whose executive, Alice Huang, is alleged to have ties to Chinese intelligence, according to US intelligence officials. A classified US memo describes Alice Huang as a recruit of China’s Ministry of State Security, according to the New York Times and the Financial Times.

Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia’s chief executive on Thursday, 12 November, after reports that he had an affair with Alice Huang. Axios has reported that Lutnick was sent a classified memo in May about Huang’s relationship with her.

According to CBS News, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security launched an investigation in 2024 into whether Nvidia chips supplied to Megaspeed were being diverted to China in breach of US export restrictions. The investigation was subsequently transferred to the US Department of Justice, the New York Times reported.

Megaspeed has not been placed on the Entity List, and according to CBS News, the department has not added any company to the list since October 2025. Inclusion on the list would restrict a company’s access to American technology and products.

The Entity List dispute

The handling of the case has also exposed a rift inside the Trump administration. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent publicly blamed the Commerce Department on Friday, 13 November, for months of delay in blacklisting Megaspeed. Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Bessent said four government agencies had supported placing Megaspeed on the Entity List for months, but the decision rested with Commerce. “Treasury, War, USTR, and State — they were in favor of putting Megaspeed on the entity list for months, but Commerce has the pen,” he said.

Lutnick had resisted a crackdown on chip diversion, according to Axios, and has faced questions over his professional and personal connections with Chinese companies and his relationship with the former Nvidia chief executive. The Commerce Department has denied that a conversation described by a former official took place.

Meanwhile, the department is finalising a rule extending export controls to seven Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, that would close a loophole letting Chinese entities remotely access Nvidia chips in data centres there, according to The Information.

What happens next

The Senate hearing is only one of several congressional moves. The chairs of three House committees — Foreign Affairs Chair Brian Mast, China Select Committee Chair John Moolenaar and Intelligence Committee Chair Rick Crawford — have asked Huang to sit for a closed-door transcribed interview on 1 December and Nvidia general counsel Tim Teter on 2 December, or face subpoenas. They have also asked Under Secretary of Commerce Jeffrey Kessler to testify at a hearing on 3 December.

The hearings are expected to examine how semiconductor export controls were enforced, how the Megaspeed investigation was handled, and the national security implications of advanced American technology reaching China. They will also test the arrangement announced in December 2025 under which Nvidia could sell its H200 chips to approved Chinese buyers, with the US government taking a share of the sales.