Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang summoned by Congress over Chinese espionage concerns

“Our regional cloud customers receive ordinary business information—not sensitive Nvidia trade secrets—and zero information relevant to national security,” it added.

The lawmakers said they wanted Huang to discuss the security protocols Nvidia had in place to protect against “foreign adversary espionage.” The company said its chief executive had an “outstanding security team” that travels with him.

The New York Times said Huang had not received a “defensive briefing,” which the intelligence community usually, but not always, provides potential espionage targets to warn them about the activity.

Nvidia said it was confident that the US government would have let the company know if it thought a person was a threat to US industry and that it often receives updates from Washington about people of concern.

The US has previously scrutinized Megaspeed, founded in 2023 as a spin-off from a Chinese gaming company, for potential chip smuggling, although no charges followed.

Nvidia launched its own unannounced on-site inspections at Megaspeed in Singapore when it became aware of the US concerns, but the internal probe found no evidence of its chips being diverted into China, said people familiar with the matter.

The company’s supply chain has come under increasing scrutiny as US export controls have prompted increased smuggling of its chips. Earlier this year Wally Liaw, a co-founder of Supermicro, one of Nvidia’s key supply chain partners, was arrested in the US and charged with smuggling Nvidia chips into China. He denies any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty.

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