US lawmakers seek Nvidia answers on China claims

Washington: Three US House committee chairmen have asked Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang to explain his contacts with a businesswoman reportedly linked to Chinese intelligence and the company’s safeguards against espionage.

The lawmakers requested a joint, closed-door briefing on November 18. Their letter, dated November 4 and publicly released on Thursday, asks Huang to accept the proposed date or offer an alternative congressional session date by November 11.

The request concerns Alice Huang, an executive associated with Singapore-based Megaspeed, and allegations that she passed information to Beijing. The letter is a request for an appearance, not a subpoena.

The three lawmakers House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford, all Republicans, sought details of Huang’s interactions with Alice Huang and Nvidia’s procedures for protecting against espionage by foreign adversaries.

“It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which U.S. national security has been placed at risk,” the chairmen wrote.

Nvidia responded on Thursday by defending its chief executive’s dealings with customers. In a statement to CNBC, the company said regional cloud customers received routine commercial information, rather than sensitive trade secrets or information relevant to national security.

“Meetings with customers are part of a CEO’s job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year,” the spokesperson said.

The company also expressed confidence that US authorities would alert it if they considered someone a threat to American industry.

The congressional move follows an October 29 investigation by The New York Times. Citing people briefed on surveillance and other sources, the newspaper reported that US intelligence officials had concluded Alice Huang was passing information to Beijing.

The Times said she had developed a close relationship with Jensen Huang. Its report also said officials initially believed the Nvidia chief did not know about her alleged intelligence activities.

The newspaper said it could not establish what information she had passed or its value to China. Those limits are significant: the publicly released committee letter supplies no underlying intelligence evidence and does not establish that Huang knowingly assisted espionage.

Megaspeed told the Times for its October report that it had retained outside lawyers to conduct an internal investigation and had notified the US government of its willingness to cooperate.

Alice Huang did not respond to the newspaper’s requests for comment. A Chinese Embassy spokesperson rejected the allegations as an effort to smear China. Those responses preceded Thursday’s congressional announcement.

The lawmakers’ request focuses on both the reported contacts and Nvidia’s internal protections. It does not announce a new export restriction, criminal charge or sanction against the company.

Nvidia, based in Santa Clara, California, supplies processors and computing systems used in artificial intelligence. Jensen Huang co-founded the company in 1993 and has served as its chief executive since its establishment. Its technology is used by cloud-computing providers and organisations developing and running AI models.

Megaspeed is a Singapore-based data-centre business that purchases computing equipment and supplies computing capacity to customers.

Its dealings involving Nvidia technology had previously drawn scrutiny over possible circumvention of US restrictions on advanced-chip access by China. Nvidia has disputed allegations that Megaspeed smuggled its chips.

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