Bessent calls for ‘dramatic shakeup’ at Nvidia, urges outside CEO

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent speaks during a press conference in St. Cloud, Minn. on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026.

Leila Navidi | Star Tribune | Getty Images

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday called for a "dramatic shakeup" at Nvidia after CEO Jensen Huang's resignation, questioning whether the chipmaker pursued illicit sales of its advanced artificial intelligence chips to boost earnings.

Bessent said Nvidia's board should look outside the company for its next chief executive and suggested other executives should face scrutiny over the chip giant's compliance with U.S. export controls.

"I want to keep coming back to what was the culture at Nvidia, and were they pressing these seemingly illicit sales to goose their revenues and their earnings?" Bessent said in an interview on Fox News.

The remarks come as Bessent has stepped up his criticism of Nvidia and amid a growing feud with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's department over the suspected diversion of advanced AI chips to China, all while defending President Donald Trump's handling of the matter.

Huang resigned Thursday following revelations about his relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, whom U.S. intelligence officials suspect of spying for China. Megaspeed is suspected of diverting Nvidia chips to China in violation of U.S. export controls.

Nvidia named Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress interim CEO.

Bessent suggested Sunday that Nvidia's problems extended well beyond Huang.

"If this were a bank and they hadn't complied like this, the OCC would be in there right now, and a lot of the executives would be removed," Bessent said, referring to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Bessent also questioned Nvidia's financial disclosures, pointing to a surge in reported Singapore revenue as its China sales fell.

"But Commerce has the pen," Bessent said.