WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said Thursday in Washington that Jensen Huang's resignation as CEO of Nvidia "does not excuse his recklessness," and called on Congress to find out what the Trump administration knew about national security concerns tied to the chipmaker's sales to China.

Reed, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that the administration "reversed course on critical export restrictions," allowing Nvidia to sell advanced AI chips to China "despite clear national security risks." He said he was aware of reports that the chips were diverted through intermediaries with ties to Chinese intelligence.

Reed's office said public reporting had revealed that Huang had an extramarital relationship with an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company, and that the executive is a suspected Chinese intelligence asset. The office said Megaspeed has bought more than $4.8 billion in advanced Nvidia AI chips since June 2024 and that the Justice Department is reportedly investigating the company for diverting chips to China in violation of export controls.

Reed said reports that President Donald Trump was briefed on intelligence linking a suspected Chinese operative to Huang and "chose not to act" would, "if true," represent "an extraordinary failure of presidential responsibility." His office said reporting suggests officials at the White House and the State and Commerce departments, including Trump, knew of the concerns but continued to approve chip sales to China.

Reed cited testimony to Congress by the commander of U.S. Pacific Command that transferring advanced semiconductors to China would "undoubtedly" come at the expense of American servicemembers in a conflict.

He also said millions of Americans have financial exposure to Nvidia through retirement accounts and pension funds. He called for transparency into what he described as complex financing deals the company has used to backstop the AI industry, an assessment of whether Nvidia is "too big to fail" and an analysis of how the events could affect the U.S. banking system and credit markets.

"We need a full accounting of what the Administration knew, when it knew it, and why it failed to act," Reed said.

The statement included no response from Huang, Nvidia, Megaspeed or the White House.

This brief was drafted by AI from a public agency or political press release and published by The New England Signal. Why we use AI for stories like this one.