Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick speaks at a campaign rally in Wasilla, Alaska, last month. Media outlet Axios reported Lutnick stalled Trump’s crackdown on companies suspected of diverting Nvidia’s chips to China.Alex Brandon/The Associated Press
Senior White House officials are discussing whether Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick should be pushed out amid a spy scandal surrounding Nvidia’s now-former CEO Jensen Huang, two people familiar with the situation said on Thursday.
A growing number of lawmakers criticized Lutnick for the administration’s refusal to add dozens of Chinese companies to a key U.S. trade blacklist, and over whether the government was properly overseeing Nvidia’s exports to China.
Criticism of Lutnick’s actions predates Thursday’s resignation of Huang, who said he would step down as CEO of the leading AI chipmaker after reports of an affair with Alice Huang, whom U.S. authorities suspect of spying for Beijing. But the charge that Lutnick has not done enough to restrict AI chip shipments to China has emerged as the fallout from Jensen Huang’s actions grows.
The White House and Commerce Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment after Reuters reported White House officials were discussing Lutnick’s future. Earlier on Thursday, a White House official said U.S. President Donald Trump “maintains complete confidence in the secretary and his ability to carry out the position.”
U.S. lawmakers push to curtail China’s access to AI chips in response to Nvidia scandal
In June, Reuters reported the Trump administration had held off adding China’s AI startup DeepSeek, memory chipmaker CXMT and more than 100 other companies flagged as national security risks to a trade blacklist.
Asked on CNN if Lutnick should lose his job, Republican Senator John Kennedy said: “I don’t know yet.” He and others have urged Lutnick to quickly publicly answer questions and noted he will be called to appear before Congress. “This is as serious as an aneurism,” Kennedy said.
The U.S. has not posted any additions to that list since October 2025, the longest stretch between new postings in more than a decade. Reuters earlier reported that the U.S. Commerce Department has not added new Chinese companies to that list for fear of escalating tensions between the U.S. and China.
“Secretary Howard Lutnick and Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler must explain why they have not closed export control loopholes and act today to ensure our advanced technology is not fueling China’s military,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said.
Warren, who will chair the Senate Banking Committee starting in January, and incoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, wrote to Lutnick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, telling the administration to preserve all documents related to Nvidia’s exports of advanced AI chips to China and related national security risks.
Nvidia sales questioned
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Representative Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the top Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee, respectively, wrote to Lutnick on Thursday, saying they were investigating the administration’s approval of sales of Nvidia’s advanced AI chips to Chinese companies “with concerning links to the Chinese government, military, and sanctioned entities.”
The lawmakers also questioned Trump’s decision to grant Nvidia permission to sell its advanced H200 AI chips to China in December 2025 in exchange for a cut of the export sales through a Commerce Department action, which they called “an unconstitutional export tax.”
How Alice Huang, the Chinese businesswoman tied to Nvidia’s CEO, went from finance to chips
Jensen Huang supported more exports to China, despite repeated calls from China hawks in both parties to crack down on Beijing’s access to the technology.
Nvidia’s statement announcing Jensen Huang’s resignation did not address his actions.
Representative Brian Mast, a Florida Republican, said Congress needs to investigate the Commerce Department’s role in how it approves chip exports, adding that he has confidence in Lutnick.
Lutnick, a Wall Street veteran who served as co-chair of Trump’s transition team, has been friends with Trump for three decades and was a guest in 2008 on “The Apprentice,” the reality TV show Trump hosted.
Axios reported on Wednesday that Lutnick stalled Trump’s crackdown on companies suspected of diverting Nvidia’s chips to China.
The Republican chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, U.S. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, urged Lutnick on Thursday to bar CXMT from the U.S. market and deny it access to American technologies.
CXMT did not respond to a request for comment.