Nvidia CEO asked to brief Congress on China spy ties — SkimNews
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- House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, joined by Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rick Crawford, invited Jensen Huang to an in-person joint briefing on Nov. 18.
- Select Committee on China and the two other committees asked Huang about his interactions with Megaspeed executive Alice Huang and Nvidia’s "security protocols against foreign adversary espionage," saying China’s access to sensitive U.S. technology was central to their congressional work.
- New York Times reported last week that U.S. intelligence had determined Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen, was funneling information to Beijing; the paper also reported that she had developed a close relationship with Jensen Huang.
- Trump was briefed roughly a year ago on those intelligence findings and "chose not to do anything with the information," the New York Times reported, citing interviews with people who had been briefed.
- Nvidia said its "regional cloud customers receive ordinary business information — not sensitive NVIDIA trade secrets — and zero information relevant to national security," while noting that Jensen Huang meets thousands of customer executives each year.
- Nvidia had not confirmed whether Jensen Huang would attend and was scheduled to report third-quarter earnings on Nov. 17, one day before the proposed Nov. 18 briefing; Megaspeed did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Why it matters: Nvidia now faces a proposed Nov. 18 closed-door session one day after its Nov. 17 earnings report, with lawmakers seeking Alice Huang’s contacts and the company’s espionage safeguards. The letter also gives the three committees a formal record of their concern about whether sensitive U.S. technology was exposed.
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