Jensen Huang agrees to testify before US Congress - Mothership

The testimony will take place before Thanksgiving, Nov. 26.

Jensen Huang has agreed to testify before the U.S. Congress, a lawmaker told Bloomberg.

The now-former Nvidia CEO agreed to testify on Nov. 11, after several key lawmakers threatened to subpoena him, said House Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast at the U.S. Capitol.

A subpoena is a compulsory legal directive that obliges one to appear for testimony to provide evidence.

Huang is expected to appear before Congress before Thanksgiving on Nov. 26.

The testimony is set to take place behind closed doors but will be recorded and transcribed, said Mast.

He added, “Jensen and I have been very at odds as some of you already know on export controls, but Nvidia is a very important company to the United States of America. I don’t want to see anything hurt in Nvidia, but he has some very serious questions to answer.”

Huang's fortunes have taken a sharp turn in the past few weeks, having stepped down as Nvidia CEO on Nov. 12 after he admitted to having an extramarital affair.

He is suspected of having three affairs in total.

More pertinently for lawmakers in Congress, however, are allegations that one of the women he was said to be involved with, Alice Huang, was a Chinese spy.

Megaspeed, the Singapore-based company at which she was a former executive, was accused by U.S. intelligence of importing and diverting advanced Nvidia chips to China, bypassing U.S. export restrictions on AI chips.

A report claimed that his relationship with Alice Huang allowed S$9.6 billion worth of Nvidia chips to enter China.

The U.S. fears that this will allow China to take the lead in the AI race.

Huang will be questioned by Mast’s House Foreign Affairs Committee, along with the House’s China and Intelligence panels.