US commerce secretary accused of stalling Trump’s Nvidia-China crackdown
The US commerce secretary allegedly stalled President Trump’s crackdown on companies suspected of diverting Nvidia chips to China.
On Thursday last week, the president gave the go-ahead to take action against those allegedly allowing Beijing to access advanced American technology.
The order was given as news came to light that Jensen Huang, the company’s chief executive, had previously had an affair with Alice Huang, the leader of Megaspeed International. She is suspected of spying for China.
Howard Lutnick, the US commerce secretary in control of American technology exports, is said to have stalled Trump’s order after a Situation Room meeting with senior administration officials including Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, and Pete Hegseth, the war secretary, Axios reported.
Bessent reportedly confronted Lutnick about the resistance from the Commerce Department to implementing export controls.
Lutnick allegedly agreed with the export controls, but “muttered under his breath” that he needed to check with the president.
The commerce secretary is accused of repeatedly stalling on action against Chinese companies obtaining American technology.
“He’s stalling it out,” an official said, adding that Lutnick had previously privately met with the president to change his mind on the export limit.
“This is an ongoing concern with Howard and this issue,” said another, according to Axios.
A Commerce Department spokesman denied that Bessent confronted Lutnick, but did not comment on the other allegations.
It was previously reported that Lutnick was shown a highly classified memo about Huang’s relationship with the alleged Chinese spy.
As commerce secretary, he is responsible for keeping America’s most advanced technology out of the hands of adversaries.
The memo, which the secretary of state Marco Rubio is reported to have overseen, circulated before Trump’s trip to China over May 13 to 15, according to the New York Times. In what is becoming a growing problem for the White House, Trump was allegedly told about the affair while travelling to the country on Air Force One.
The news was allegedly delivered before Huang joined the trip at Trump’s invitation. The president denied being aware of the affair at the time.
This week, Trump was asked if he had received a briefing on the issue but dismissed the scandal. “I’d certainly check with the intelligence people,” he said. “They could have been mentioned. Certainly, it didn’t make much of an impact on me.”
Reuters reported on May 14 that the Commerce Department had cleared about ten Chinese companies to purchase Nvidia’s H200 chips.
The US has restricted exports of its most advanced chips to China as it seeks to maintain its advantage over Beijing in the AI arms race.
Last year, Lutnick defended the Trump administration’s decision to allow Nvidia to sell its chips to China because it would keep the country reliant on US technology. He said Washington was only allowing inferior chips to leave America.
Nvidia has lost about $1.7trn in value amid the controversy surrounding its chief executive, whose future at the company remains uncertain.
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