China panel chair Moolenaar demands answers on Nvidia CEO's alleged affair with a Chinese spy

Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., said on a Tuesday appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that Congress needs to “get to the bottom” of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang‘s affair with an alleged Chinese spy.

Moolenaar, who chairs the House Permanent Select Committee on China, said he wants to know whether Huang shared privileged information with a Chinese spy; whether Huang was influenced to lobby against preventing chip sales to China; and whether China was given preference in purchasing Nvidia’s limited supply of advanced chips.

And he urged a thorough internal investigation of Huang.

“If it becomes less of an investigation, more of damage control, that’s not going to work because people have to have confidence,” Moolenaar said.

“We’re dealing with the country, the Chinese Communist Party that is a foremost adversary, that’s funding wars and supporting Russia, supporting Iran, North Korea,” he said. “And we have basically a Cold War race with technology. We cannot allow the premier company at the forefront of this to, in some way, be irresponsible.”

Congressional scrutiny of Huang’s affair has intensified since members returned to Washington on Monday.

The New York Times reported that Huang was romantically involved with Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive who U.S. intelligence agencies have identified as a Chinese intelligence asset. Nvidia opened an investigation into its CEO on Sunday. The two Huangs are not related.

Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., co-chair of the House AI task force, raised concerns that the scandal could plague talks over export controls for advanced AI chips.

“It’s important not to have a personal scandal interfere with the substantive policy discussion about to what degree we should be allowing the export of cutting edge chips to our geopolitical competitors like China,” Obernolte told CNBC. “I hope this isn’t a distraction because that’s a very important conversation that needs to happen.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a press conference on Monday that “we’re going to need a full briefing specifically as it relates to the Nvidia issue so we can all get to the bottom of what has happened and what the implications are in terms of national security”

Moolenaar co-authored a letter with Florida Rep. Brian Mast and Arkansas Rep. Rick Crawford on Nov. 5 asking Huang to appear before the Select Committee on China, the House Foreign Affairs Committee and House Select Committee on Intelligence. Mast chairs the foreign affairs panel, and Crawford chairs intelligence.

“Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the PRC’s access to sensitive U.S. technology and information,” the three Republicans wrote.

Mast said Tuesday he did not know whether Huang had responded to the letter he authored with Moolenar and Crawford demanding the tech CEO brief them.

“I can’t say that I’ve heard an answer back yet that,” Mast told reporters at the Capitol.

Mast then rattled off a list of questions he has for Huang, including where the company has been selling chips, what Megaspeed may have been using them for, who has been remotely accessing Nvidia chips and what information was passed between Huang and the potential spy.

“Obviously questions relating to his relationship and what information was or was not passed about anything,” Mast said when asked what he wants answered.

Mast said he “can’t say it would hurt” to hear from the Commerce Department as well, noting he speaks regularly to the Bureau of Industry and Security.

“So that’s obviously something that falls directly under Commerce,” he said