Schumer Demands a Full Accounting of Trump's Defense of Nvidia's CEO — and Wants New Limits on Chip Exports to China Moved Quickly
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that Congress must have a full accounting of President Donald Trump's defense of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, citing reports that Trump was briefed a year ago on Huang's relationship with a suspected Chinese spy and did nothing. Schumer also pressed lawmakers to quickly approve new restrictions on US chip exports to China.
WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that Congress must have a full accounting of President Donald Trump's defense of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and he called on lawmakers to quickly approve new restrictions on US chip exports to China, Reuters reported. Schumer cited reports that Trump was briefed on Huang's affair with a suspected Chinese spy a year ago and did nothing.
The underlying reporting is allegation, and it is carried here as such: Nvidia's board launched a probe after the New York Times reported that Huang had a close relationship with a Chinese businesswoman whom US intelligence officials believe shared information with Beijing, Reuters reported. Trump said Monday that he had spoken to Huang, who told him he had no idea the woman was a spy. The White House and Nvidia did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported, and lawmakers want a briefing with Huang.
The policy track Schumer is pushing is already drafted. A Senate version of the annual defense bill contains provisions giving Congress more authority over AI chips going to China, prodding US allies to restrict sales of semiconductor-manufacturing equipment, and requiring businesses to track their AI chips abroad to combat smuggling, Reuters reported. With Democrats set to take both chambers in January, the espionage story and the export bill now travel together: the incoming majority can pass restrictions and investigate the briefing Schumer says Congress is owed.
Texas sits inside this story through its chip economy — the state's semiconductor plants, its AI data-center build-out, and the export rules that decide what the hardware in those facilities can be sold and shipped abroad. A Congress that tightens AI-chip controls while investigating how the last administration handled a suspected-spy briefing is setting the terms under which Texas's fastest-growing industry will operate.
