The Tectonic

🇺🇲 🇨🇳 Nvidia's bad Tuesday: a subpoena threat, a $7.5 billion chip report, and an ex-prosecutor hired to investigate Jensen Huang. The scandal moved from the tabloids to Capitol Hill and Wall Street on Tuesday, all in one day. First, Congress. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, a Republican, told ABC News he is prepared to subpoena the Nvidia CEO if Huang does not respond by Wednesday to a request from several House Republicans for a closed-door briefing on his reported relationship with an alleged Chinese spy. Second, a new allegation. The Information reported, citing two people who know her, that Huang's affair with Alice Huang, a businesswoman US intelligence officials reportedly suspect of working for Beijing, helped move at least $7.5 billion worth of Nvidia chips to Chinese firms. According to the report, she, her husband and her sister built a network of companies in China and Singapore, centered on Shanghai Century Litong, which won preferred cloud partner status with Nvidia within months of its founding in 2023. When orders for export-restricted chips stalled, the report says, she used ties to Nvidia and its distributors to help move about 240,000 H100, H200 and some A100 chips into China. Nvidia did not immediately respond to Reuters, and none of this has been tested in any court. Third, the board. Nvidia's independent directors said they hired Joon Kim, a former acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, and his firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz to investigate whether company secrets or national security were compromised. The board said on Sunday it had no reason to believe either was. Investors are not waiting. Nvidia shares fell about 6 percent on Tuesday after a drop of more than 4 percent on Monday, CNBC reported, on fears Huang could be forced out. Beijing calls the spy allegations "entirely groundless," and Alice Huang has not commented publicly. Why it matters: Huang has been Washington's most influential voice against tight China chip controls. Every new detail strengthens the lawmakers now trying to write those controls into the defense bill, a week before President Trump is due to meet Xi Jinping at APEC in Shenzhen. Image: "Behind Megaspeed was a network of wealthy tech investors in China with links to domestic data centers, the government and the defense industry. Between 2024 and 2026, the firm bought billions of dollars of Nvidia’s advanced A.I. technology, bringing Ms. Huang further into Mr. Huang’s orbit." - NYT