Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (r) indicated that the Commerce Department, headed by Howard Lutnick (l), had the authority to ban Nvidia chip exporter Megaspeed long ago|Cabinet Secretariat website|CC BY 4.0
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has publicly criticized Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s department for failing to block Nvidia chip exports to Megaspeed, the company linked to Alice Huang, a woman romantically linked to Jensen Huang, and an alleged Chinese spy.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stepped down this week amid reports of extramarital affairs with Alice and two Nvidia employees.
Alice reportedly helped China gain billions worth of the US company’s AI chips.
Bessent told CNBC on Friday that the Treasury and other agencies had pushed for months to add Megaspeed to the US trade blacklist, emphasizing that President Donald Trump clearly barred China from receiving any Nvidia chips more advanced than H100s.
He said the Commerce Department, led by Lutnick, had the authority to ban Megaspeed long ago.
Lawmakers from both parties are now demanding congressional testimony and document preservation from Lutnick.
Bessent also insisted that anyone at Nvidia who failed to prevent export leakage must be held accountable.