Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO with Congress pushing tougher chip export rules

Jensen Huang resigned as chief executive of Nvidia on Thursday, November 12, after reports of an extramarital affair with an executive US authorities suspect of spying for Beijing 3

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. It ended a 33-year run at the chip company he co-founded. The exit lands just as lawmakers from both parties push to harden the export rules on AI chips that Huang had resisted 4

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An exit the company left unexplained

Nvidia named chief financial officer Colette Kress interim CEO. The board has yet to pick a permanent successor to the man who had led Nvidia since its 1993 founding 2

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. Its chips sit at the center of the AI race between the US and China 1

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. That is why Washington has spent years trying to keep the most advanced ones out of Chinese hands 1

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The company's announcement said nothing about why he left 1

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. Huang has admitted an extramarital affair without naming the person involved 1

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. Reports identify her as Alice Huang, who also goes by Huang Le and previously worked at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center company 3

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. US officials suspect her of spying for Beijing. Megaspeed is under investigation in both the US and Singapore for allegedly smuggling advanced chips into China that were banned from export there 3

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Congress wants him under oath

The scrutiny started before the resignation. On November 4, three House committee chairs (John Moolenaar, Brian Mast and Rick Crawford) wrote to Huang asking for a closed-door briefing. They wanted to question him on Nvidia's security protocols and on his interactions with a publicly reported Chinese intelligence asset, and set a Wednesday deadline for a response 3

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. That deadline fell the day before he resigned.

Huang has indicated he is willing to appear before Congress. Republicans are negotiating a date, and the chairs say they will use subpoena power if the talks fail 3

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. Senator Kevin Cramer said Thursday, moments before the announcement, that he would happily support a subpoena, and his spokesperson says he still does 3

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. Moolenaar said the goal is to get Huang in as soon as possible, so Congress can establish the full picture and the truth of the situation 3

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. He also acknowledged that the resignation changes the dynamic around the testimony 3

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The rules he resisted are moving without him

Lawmakers from both parties aim to attach new chip-export restrictions to the year-end National Defense Authorization Act. Speaker Mike Johnson backs stronger restrictions, as do Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer 4

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. Four bills are in play. One would give Congress a review of export-rule changes. Another would require location tracking of advanced chips and reports of suspicious transfers. A third, which passed the House in January, would regulate remote access to US computing power. A fourth would tighten allied export controls on chipmaking equipment 4

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. None has become law, and the House and Senate still have to agree on identical text before anything can be signed 4

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. The Senate's version of the defense bill already includes provisions from several of the bills 4

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. This Congress ends January 3, 2027; miss that window and the process starts over 4

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For Nvidia the direct financial hit looks small for now. The company said in August that selling chips to Chinese data centers brought in almost nothing, and it did not expect a pickup in the third quarter 1

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. But it said in July that the remote-access bill, if passed, could materially affect its business, and the Semiconductor Industry Association warns that required tracking could get expensive for chipmakers 1

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. Some Chinese firms already rent remote access to overseas data centers stocked with Nvidia chips, which is the workaround the remote-access bill targets 1

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. Reuters reported Thursday that Chinese AI companies are now rushing to secure more of that capacity abroad, fearing the controversy will speed up restrictions 1

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President Trump, a friend of Huang's, downplayed the scandal, said Huang did a "fantastic job" and posted that Apple's Tim Cook should replace him 3

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. Huang, for his part, had supported allowing more chip exports to China, against the tightening mood in Congress 1

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. His departure takes a corporate voice for looser controls out of the debate. Moolenaar called Huang's exit an "unfortunate end" that "could have been avoided", and said Congress must pass bipartisan export-control legislation quickly 2

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Two clocks are now running: the negotiation over Huang's testimony and the year-end defense bill. "We are in discussions with him right now on a date to come and meet with us," Moolenaar said 3

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