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How close is the relationship between Donald Trump and Jensen Huang?
The answer is a lot.
The recently resigned head of Nvidia was one of the few business leaders with direct access to the president of the United States.
He met with Trump repeatedly, traveled with him to the United Kingdom and, in May, accompanied him on Air Force One during his visit to China.
Jensen Huang wasn't just another tech billionaire seeking the president's attention. He had become an important voice in one of the most consequential debates within the administration: how much of America's most advanced technology should be allowed to reach China.
Nvidia makes the chips that power the AI revolution. Washington restricts exports of its most advanced processors to China from 2022, considering that they could help Beijing develop its military and technological capabilities.
But enforcing those restrictions is difficult. Customers from other countries can buy chips legally in countries like Singapore and Malaysia and then ship them to China.
Chinese companies can also rent access to computer processing capacity through data centers outside the country.
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Jensen Huang has long argued that restrictions are counterproductive. They exclude Nvidia from a huge market and encourage Chinese companies to develop their own alternatives.
Trump seemed to understand this stance, allowing Nvidia to resume selling certain chips to China last year in exchange for a percentage of revenue, although its most advanced Blackwell chips remain out of reach for Chinese companies.
But now that relationship seems much more complicated.
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The revelation of Jensen Huang's alleged romantic relationship with Alice Huang (no relation), a former executive at the Singapore-based company Megaspeed, exposes the possibility that a foreign intelligence operation was directed not only against a powerful businessman, but against someone with unusually close access to the American president.
According to several reports, US intelligence suspects that Alice Huang has ties to Chinese intelligence. Beijing rejects the accusations.
Nvidia's board of directors says it has no reason to believe that company secrets or national security have been compromised.
However, this issue raises a much more important question: What did Washington know and what did it do about it?
That question brings us directly to US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.
His department was responsible for controlling exports of sensitive American technology. He was also under pressure to act on concerns about Megaspeed, an Nvidia customer suspected of helping divert advanced chips to China.
On Thursday, Megaspeed CEO Tan Yong Pong, also known as James Tan, said the company "takes its compliance obligations with US export control laws very seriously." and that it is "committed to working constructively and transparently with the US government."
He added that the company cooperated with Department of Commerce inspections.
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Lutnick received a highly classified memo regarding concerns related to Alice Huang and Megaspeed, and resisted taking action against the company, a decision that is now under scrutiny.
Other senior officials demanded a stronger response.
According to information published by US media, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was one of those who questioned whether Megaspeed was not included in the Department of Commerce's blacklist.
Questions were also raised about why the investigation against the Singapore-based company was stopped following Nvidia's intervention.
According to The New York Times, Nvidia's general counsel contacted Commerce Department investigators looking into alleged chip smuggling by Megaspeed, mentioning a senior Trump appointee.
The department then allegedly froze the investigation and transferred the case to the Department of Justice.
This highlighted a major disagreement over the direction of Trump's China policy.
Huang wanted access to the Chinese market, while some senior officials were concerned about the national security consequences.
Lutnick was caught in the middle of the controversy.
Now political pressure is increasing.
Congressional Questions
Members of Congress from both parties demand answers.
Democrats have launched an investigation into how the Commerce Department evaluated Chinese companies authorized to buy AI chips. Republicans also question the administration's approach.
And Jensen Huang's departure doesn't relieve the pressure.
Republican Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, admitted that the success of Nvidia and other American AI companies is in the national interest, but warned that the companies "should never jeopardize our nation's security" by giving Chinese companies access to their most advanced chips.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said Huang's resignation does not absolve him of responsibility and urged Lutnick to explain why gaps in export controls continue to exist.
Meanwhile, Jensen Huang's team told Republican lawmakers Wednesday that he plans to cooperate with their request to testify behind closed doors.
The White House has not responded to the BBC's request for comment.
However, he told The New York Post that Trump has full confidence in Lutnick, whom he describes as "the most transformative secretary of commerce in modern history."
It's a pretty strong show of support, especially amid reports that officials are weighing whether Lutnick should be removed.
Some obvious questions arise.
If Lutnick had been warned of the risks, why didn't his department act? And if other senior officials were pushing for action, why did it take so long?
The BBC has contacted the Department of Commerce for comment.
But for Trump there is an even more important question.
The president cultivated a close relationship with Huang. He was directly involved in decisions about the sale of chips to China. And, according to a report in The New York Times, he was briefed on the intelligence concerns.
It is increasingly difficult to see this as a simple error in judgment by a businessman in a government department.
Jensen Huang's personal life may have triggered the crisis, but now the questions extend to the White House itself.
How much influence did he have? What did the president know? And who was ultimately responsible for protecting America's most sensitive technology?
This article was originally written in English and we used an artificial intelligence tool to translate it. A BBC journalist reviewed the text before publication. Learn more about how we use AI.
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