Democratic lawmakers have opened a congressional inquiry into the Trump administration’s handling of Nvidia chip sales to China. Their questions focus on export approvals, the treatment of a company suspected of routing chips, and Nvidia’s donations to projects associated with President Trump.
The inquiry comes as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has agreed to testify to a separate group of Republican-led committees. The two efforts are examining the company’s China dealings and the administration’s decisions from different sides of Congress.
Lawmakers question the export arrangement
Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. They asked the department to preserve records related to an arrangement they consider questionable and allege may have been illegal.
As described in the letter, President Trump agreed to sales of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China if the Taiwan-manufactured chips were first shipped to the United States. Trump then added a tariff when the chips arrived, and the Commerce Department issued an export license.
The lawmakers say this arrangement appears to have let the government take a portion of Nvidia’s China sales through an export tax system they describe as unconstitutional. The source reports that the revenue-sharing deal was public: in August 2025, Nvidia and AMD agreed to give the U.S. government 15% of revenue from chip sales to China in exchange for export licenses.
Focus turns to a chip buyer in Singapore
The letter also asks why the Commerce Department continued to allow Megaspeed to buy chips after reportedly receiving U.S. intelligence about suspicions involving the company and Alice Huang. She was an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based Nvidia customer that U.S. officials suspect of helping route advanced Nvidia chips into China.
The lawmakers further question whether the department approved purchases by other Asian companies that allegedly had no physical presence at their listed addresses. These questions broaden the inquiry beyond Nvidia and its CEO to how the administration assessed buyers and acted on intelligence.
Neal and Wyden are Democrats in the minority, so they can request information but cannot compel answers. Their letter asks the department to retain relevant records, putting the administration’s decisions and documentation at the center of their inquiry.
Donations raise another line of inquiry
The lawmakers also ask how Nvidia’s donations to Trump’s projects figured into the export decision. The letter says the approval came after Trump learned of what it calls Huang’s “compromised position” and after Nvidia donated $26 million toward Trump’s projects, including the ballroom.
The timing leads the letter to ask whether Trump used knowledge of Huang’s relationship with an alleged spy to secure donations from Nvidia. That is presented as a question for investigators, not an established finding.
The article also notes that Trump, in a “60 Minutes” interview aired on Sunday, said he and his team had threatened an unnamed AI executive with jail, after which the executive “totally changed.” The report does not establish a connection between that account and the Nvidia export decisions.
A separate Republican-led investigation
This is the second congressional investigation into Nvidia’s China sales and its dealings with Trump since news of the alleged spy relationship emerged. The other effort is led by Republicans from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the House Intelligence Committee.
That group demanded that Huang testify in a closed-door session and threatened to subpoena him if he did not agree voluntarily. On Thursday, after his resignation, Huang agreed to testify.
The two inquiries may seek answers from different parts of the story: one asks how the administration handled export licenses and related information, while the other has sought testimony from Nvidia’s CEO. The Democratic lawmakers’ ability to ask questions without compelling responses may limit what their inquiry can establish, but their letter identifies records and decisions they want the Commerce Department to preserve and explain.