Huang has repeatedly pressed Trump to take a more permissive approach to shipping Nvidia’s AI chips to China, after the company was completely cut off from the critical market by new export controls in 2025.
The resulting deal (in which Trump allowed the export of Nvidia’s previous-generation H200 chips to China and the US government took a cut of the sales) had minimal impact on the Silicon Valley company’s sales as Beijing rejected its technology. But it further angered China hawks in the US administration.
The US government had already been investigating Megaspeed over fears it was smuggling Nvidia chips to China.
Nvidia said Sunday that a committee of independent directors, aided by outside lawyers, would oversee the investigation.
“The board prioritizes the national and economic security of the United States, which is paramount to the interests of Nvidia and its shareholders,” the company said. “While the board has no reason to believe that national security or Nvidia’s secrets were compromised, the board’s investigation will examine all available information.”
Huang, who co-founded Nvidia as a gaming graphics card company in 1993, is one of Silicon Valley’s longest-serving founders and CEOs. More than most technology groups, Nvidia’s success is tied to that of its CEO.
Huang leads a close and loyal core team of about a half-dozen executives, serving as his head of sales on the international stage while also directly managing dozens of direct reports who keep the company running.
He has credited this “flat” organizational structure for the speed at which the company operates, helping it stay ahead of rivals in the AI chip market and increasing its market valuation from about $1 trillion in 2023 to $4.5 trillion today.
Elon Musk, a close ally of Huang, was one of the first to offer support, agreeing in a social media post that he was “one of the greatest entrepreneurs of this generation” and “irreplaceable for AI leadership in the United States.”
But John Moolenaar, the Republican head of the House China committee who, along with other lawmakers, asked Huang to testify before Congress, said: “It is vital that Jensen Huang address our national security concerns in Congress related to China’s access to sensitive technology and information.”
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