US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that American chipmaker Nvidia needs to look outside the company for a new chief executive following the resignation of founder Jensen Huang last week.
"This makes me think that as the board conducts a search for a new leader, they need to go outside the company; with what was going on inside the company, they need a dramatic shakeup," Bessent told Fox News on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump recommended Apple's Executive Chair Tim Cook to become the next chief executive of the American chipmaker following Huang's resignation.
Bessent also called on Nvidia to explain whether it knowingly allowed its most advanced AI chips to reach China, saying this was more important than ex-CEO Jensen Huang's affair with an alleged spy for Beijing.
The United States forbids sales to China of the most cutting-edge AI chips, hoping to stay ahead of the Chinese in the race to dominate artificial intelligence.
US export restrictions
In late 2025, President Trump did authorise sales of Nvidia chips called H200s to the Chinese, but not the most advanced chips used to run AI models reshaping modern society.
"Nothing above the H200s can be sold to the Chinese," Bessent said.
"What's more important here," he said, "is to examine whether Nvidia had a culture of compliance around the US export restrictions."
He alluded to companies linked to Megaspeed, the Singapore-based data centre company that Huang's alleged partner Alice Huang once worked for.
"And who knew? Because I mean, these shell companies were obvious. They were being investigated. And did Nvidia use them as a workaround to sell chips to the Chinese?"
Bessent said he wanted answers from Nvidia and its internal investigation of Jensen Huang's behaviour within the next 10 days
House committees to question Huang
Meanwhile, Huang and company representatives have agreed to sit for a voluntary closed-door interview before three US House committees, a lawmaker announced.
“We are in the process of discussing exact dates, but yes, they said they will be forthcoming and work with the committee,” John Moolenaar, chair of the US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, told CBS News.
The Republican lawmaker from Michigan explained that the joint session, involving the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Intelligence Committee and his committee, eliminates the immediate need for a congressional subpoena.
The three committees invited Huang on Thursday for a “closed-door, transcribed” interview on December 1, noting that failure to cooperate would result in a subpoena.
Moolenaar noted that lawmakers aim to determine “to what degree privileged information was accessed” and whether an alleged Chinese intelligence asset influenced Nvidia's corporate approach to artificial intelligence and export controls.
Huang stepped down on November 12 after leading Nvidia for more than three decades and acknowledging an extramarital relationship with Alice Huang, the former chief executive of Singapore-based cloud firm Megaspeed, who has been identified in media reports as an alleged Chinese intelligence asset.
