Washington — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has agreed to testify before the Senate Banking Committee on Dec. 10, according to a U.S. official, amid intensifying scrutiny of the Commerce Department’s oversight of the export of powerful AI chips following the resignation of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
A growing number of Republicans are calling on Lutnick to answer questions about the Commerce Department’s apparent delay in adding Singapore-based company Megaspeed International to the U.S. government’s Entity List, which would have restricted the company’s ability to get access to advanced AI chips.
Megaspeed was previously led by Alice Huang, the suspected Chinese spy who had an affair with Jensen Huang. The U.S. government suspects Megaspeed of directing advanced Nvidia chips to China, circumventing a U.S. export ban.
GOP Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, told Fox News on Thursday that “we know that the Department of Commerce, Secretary Lutnick, it appears, used loopholes to allow some of these chip sales to occur even though President Trump has directed his administration and the Department of Commerce not to allow that to happen.”
On Friday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent repeatedly emphasized that the Treasury Department and other parts of the executive branch had pushed for restrictions on Megaspeed, laying the blame for the delay at the feet of the Commerce Department.
“Treasury, War, [the U.S. Trade Representative] and State, they were in favor of putting Megaspeed on the Entity List for months, but Commerce has the pen,” Bessent told CNBC. “And you will have to ask them about their internal processes.”
Bessent declined to comment on reported tensions between himself and Lutnick. The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to CBS News’ request for comment.
