Democrats open Nvidia-Trump chip deal inquiry
Original: Democrats launch Nvidia investigation, write scathing letter on Huang’s ‘scheme’ with Trump
Why This Matters
Chips-for-tariffs revenue sharing sets a precedent for how U.S. export policy may be monetized.
House and Senate Democrats launched a formal inquiry Thursday into Trump's arrangement allowing Nvidia H200 chip sales to China, citing a 15% revenue-sharing deal, a $26M donation, and alleged spy ties to ousted CEO Jensen Huang.
Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrats on the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees respectively, sent a pointed letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick demanding record preservation related to Nvidia's chip export arrangement with China. The same day, Nvidia ousted CEO Jensen Huang following his admission of an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed — a company U.S. officials suspect of routing advanced Nvidia chips into China. She has been described as an alleged Chinese spy.
The Democrats' letter outlines the arrangement bluntly: Trump approved H200 chip sales to China on the condition that Taiwan-manufactured chips ship first to the U.S., where a tariff — which the letter calls an 'unconstitutional export tax' — was applied before Commerce issued export licenses. The AP had previously reported that in August 2025, Nvidia and AMD each agreed to share 15% of China chip-sale revenue with the U.S. government in exchange for export licenses.
The inquiry zeroes in on why Lutnick continued approving Megaspeed purchases after being briefed by intelligence officials on Alice Huang's suspected ties, and why other Asian companies with no verifiable physical addresses received similar licenses. The letter also flags Nvidia's $26 million in donations to Trump projects, raising questions about whether awareness of Jensen Huang's affair was used as leverage. A recent '60 Minutes' interview, in which Trump described threatening an unnamed AI executive with jail until the exec 'totally changed,' added another layer of context lawmakers appear to be examining.