Key House Intel Lawmakers Urge Probe Of Huang’s Relationship With Alleged Chinese Spy

Reps. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) are urging the intelligence community to investigate whether Jensen Huang’s relationship with an alleged Chinese spy exposed Nvidia to national security risks, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO.

The missive, sent Thursday to Trump administration officials including Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, says the relationship raises concerns that the People’s Republic of China infiltrated one of the world’s most valuable companies as a means for accessing restricted high-performance chips.

It’s one of the first calls by members of Congress for federal authorities to investigate the alleged espionage effort and comes as Congress gears up for a series of probes both into the company and the administration’s chip export control decisions.

“In PRC hands, this technology could be used to train military AI systems, accelerate cyber operations against U.S. networks, and expand state surveillance,” the letter states.

LaHood and Gottheimer are chair and ranking member, respectively, of a subcommittee on the House Intelligence Permanent Select Committee that oversees the National Security Agency and intelligence-related activities of Cyber Command. The letter was also sent to Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and NSA Director Joshua Rudd.

The Justice Department is currently probing Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed International, over whether entities linked to her were part of an effort to smuggle Super Micro Computer products to China, Bloomberg News reported Thursday. Nvidia’s general counsel intervened in a U.S. government probe of suspected chip smuggling by Megaspeed in defiance of export controls, according to a prior Bloomberg report.

LaHood and Gottheimer pointed to persistent efforts by China to target U.S. officials and business executives to access sensitive information and technology, and questioned whether interagency cooperation and information-sharing on suspected spying goes far enough.

They’re asking each agency to immediately provide written responses and give classified briefings to Congress that includes an assessment of Beijing’s intentions and methods for undermining the U.S. leadership in advanced technology, a chronology of potential interactions between PRC intelligence and Alice Huang and an accounting of what information the agencies were aware of and with whom it was shared, among other requests.