Lawmakers Call for Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to Resign Over Chinese Spy Allegations

Political pressure on NVDA CEO Jensen Huang moved from questions to calls for his exit this week. Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, a Republican member of the Senate Banking Committee, told POLITICO late Tuesday that Huang should step down, citing the risk of extortion: "The potential for extortion is so tremendous that something as sensitive as Nvidia chips, I just think he's got to go". His remarks came hours after Larry Kudlow, the former National Economic Council director, urged Huang to resign on his Fox Business program. Forbes summed up the day as lawmakers urging a federal probe and calling for his resignation.

In the House, Rep. John Moolenaar, the Michigan Republican who chairs the select committee on China, said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" that Congress needs to "get to the bottom" of the affair. He wants to know whether Huang shared privileged information, whether he was influenced to lobby against curbs on chip sales to China, and whether China received preference for Nvidia's limited supply of advanced chips. Moolenaar did not call for resignation, but warned that if the board's review becomes "more of damage control, that's not going to work". On the Democratic side, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries asked for a full briefing, and CNBC reported that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused President Trump of defending Huang at the cost of national security.

The backdrop is a New York Times report that U.S. officials identified Alice Huang, a businesswoman associated with Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed, as a Chinese intelligence asset suspected of helping funnel advanced Nvidia chips to China; the two Huangs are not related. Nvidia's board launched an independent investigation over the weekend, overseen by independent directors with outside counsel, and has said it has no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised. Cramer called that review "fine, but not nearly enough".

The policy angle may matter more than the personnel one. Cramer's committee has jurisdiction over chip-export legislation, and three bills, the AI OVERWATCH Act, the Chip Security Act and the MATCH Act, are being considered for the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act, with their odds seen as rising since the scandal broke. The stock itself held up on Wednesday, closing at $173.73, up 2.9%, per SentiSense market data. What to watch: whether more lawmakers join the resignation call, any findings or timeline from the board's review, the fate of the chip bills in the NDAA, and Nvidia's earnings on November 17, where consensus EPS stands at $2.47.