Abstract:
Two key Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives said on Wednesday that Congress is preparing to issue a subpoena to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, requiring him to explain his extramarital affair with a woman. House Republican John Moolenaar said Huang had until the end of Wednesday to respond to a previous request from several key House Republicans to attend a closed-door briefing on the scandal. One of the world's most valuable companies and its billionaire leader have become embroiled in the scandal.
Moolenaar said in an interview on Wednesday that if Huang does not agree to attend the briefing and does not propose another date, then a subpoena will likely be issued to require his presence.
Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, later told reporters at the U.S. Capitol that the committee is preparing to issue a subpoena to Huang Jen-Hsun, and will issue a subpoena if Huang Jen-Hsun does not respond to the committee's inquiries.
Moolenaar, Mast and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford last week asked Huang to attend a joint closed-door meeting to explain the chipmaker's security procedures. The request took on added importance after news emerged that the Nvidia chief had had an extramarital affair with Alice Huang.
After the news came to light, Nvidia’s stock price fell by about 10% in two trading days, ranking second to last among the S&P 500 index constituent stocks during the same period. The stock rebounded more than 4% on Wednesday amid broad market gains.
The revelations about Jen-Hsun Huang also further promoted Congress’ efforts to include a series of chip export control measures in the defense appropriations bill. The bill must be passed by the end of the year.
Mast expressed optimism that the bill will include export control measures. "We are now where we want to be," he added.
Moolenaar said that Nvidia has "lost a lot of credibility" in the debate over the strength of export controls on advanced AI chips.
Moolenaar said he believed there was a "growing consensus that we need to include export control legislation in the National Defense Authorization Act."
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