Senators Demand Trump Administration Preserve Nvidia Records Over Chip Sales to China
Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons asked the administration to keep all records on Nvidia's advanced chip exports to China and to confirm the order by November 17, as scrutiny grows over a Singapore buyer tied to a suspected Chinese intelligence operative.
Two Democratic senators have asked the Trump administration to preserve all records tied to Nvidia’s exports of advanced artificial intelligence chips to China, widening the congressional scrutiny around the chipmaker and its chief executive.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Chris Coons of Delaware sent a letter Wednesday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The letter asks the administration to keep documents, communications and other records related to Nvidia’s chip exports and the national security risks around them, and to confirm in writing by November 17 that preservation orders have been issued.
The senators also asked for a congressional briefing on the risks tied to the reported intelligence operation.
The Megaspeed connection
At the center of the inquiry is Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company that has bought more than $4.8 billion in advanced Nvidia chips since June 2024, according to trade records cited by lawmakers. The Justice Department is investigating whether Megaspeed diverted advanced chips to China in violation of U.S. export controls, the senators wrote.
The letter follows reports that Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang had a relationship with Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive whom U.S. intelligence agencies suspect of passing information to China. Huang acknowledged last weekend that he had been unfaithful to his wife. The two are not related.
Warren and Coons wrote that senior administration officials were aware of the intelligence concerns about Huang and Megaspeed but did not move to stop the flow of chips, and they asked whether “prudent defensive counter-intelligence action was taken or national security recommendations were overruled.” The senators also pointed to reporting that a Commerce Department investigation of Megaspeed was changed after Nvidia representatives contacted the department.
House scrutiny and the company’s response
The Senate letter came as three Republican House committee chairmen pressed for their own answers. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar and Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford have asked Huang to account for his contacts with Megaspeed executives and to describe Nvidia’s internal protections against foreign espionage. They have proposed a closed-door briefing for November 18.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats have alleged that President Donald Trump dismissed a warning about Huang’s reported ties. In a post on X, the committee Democrats wrote that Rubio warned Trump about the relationship, “but Trump brushed it off.”
Nvidia’s board opened an independent investigation on November 8, run by a committee of independent directors with outside lawyers. The board said it had no reason to believe that national security or company secrets were compromised, while promising to examine all available information. Nvidia has said its customer meetings are ordinary executive work, that customers receive standard commercial specifications rather than trade secrets, and that its internal reviews found no evidence of export control violations. Megaspeed has said it complies with trade laws and is cooperating with American inquiries.
China’s Foreign Ministry has dismissed the espionage accusations as baseless smears. Nvidia reports earnings on November 17, the same day the senators want written confirmation of the records order.
Reporting based on coverage by Fox Business and East Asia Brief.
