Nvidia is done with Jensen Huang. Washington fallout is just beginning

Jensen Huang is out at Nvidia. Washington is just getting started with him and the company he co-founded.

Huang, the leather-jacket-clad CEO of the world’s most important chipmaker, resigned from Nvidia on Thursday after revelations that he had an affair with a suspected Chinese spy. But the spy saga is gripping Washington, and lawmakers are preparing for investigations into how the now-ex-CEO’s affair may have damaged U.S. artificial intelligence dominance, the national security implications and the executive’s close relationship with President Donald Trump and his Cabinet.

Republicans will have their chance first during their last six weeks controlling both chambers of Congress. GOP leaders immediately summoned Huang to Capitol Hill and said they would subpoena him if he doesn’t agree to show up. In January, Democrats, who are already eager to make their mark with oversight when they take over the U.S. House and Senate, will be in the driver’s seat.

“In this environment where there’s some really high stakes when it comes to our national security, I would expect there would be some follow-up, yeah,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday.

Huang and the woman with whom he reportedly had a relationship, Alice Huang, an executive at the Singaporean technology company Megaspeed and an alleged Chinese spy have drawn congressional attention. And Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has drawn fire after reports this week that he stalled President Donald Trump’s crackdowns on firms routing Nvidia chips to China.

Some Congress members have also called for an investigation into the role of the Bureau of Industry and Security, a subagency of the Commerce Department that manages and enforces export controls, in the Huang scandal.

The New York Times reported on Monday that Nvidia’s general counsel, Tim Teter, claimed in emails to Commerce investigators probing Alice Huang’s company that he’d been in touch with Jeffrey Kessler, who leads BIS. The Commerce investigation into Megaspeed, which allegedly smuggled restricted chips to China, was then transferred to the Justice Department.

By Thursday night, Senate banking committee Chair Tim Scott, R-S.C., summoned both Huang and Lutnick to testify before his committee in December. Later that same night, Lutnick had “proactively agreed to appear voluntarily before the Banking Committee to address their questions,” Kristen Eichamer, a Commerce Department spokesperson, said in a statement.