Nvidia’s Trump ties draw scrutiny after reports Huang was targeted by Chinese intelligence

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks on stage during the Invest in Germany Summit in Berlin, Germany, October 19, 2026.

Lisi Niesner | Reuters

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has spent the last two years cultivating an unparalleled relationship with President Donald Trump, gaining extraordinary access and influence over federal artificial intelligence policy as his company has pushed for looser restrictions on selling advanced chips to China.

Now, revelations about Huang's affair with a suspected Chinese spy are putting that carefully built alliance under scrutiny – along with the millions of dollars Huang and other Nvidia executives have spent expanding its political influence in Washington.

The chipmaker is nearly inseparable from its co-founder and CEO Huang, who has over Trump's second term gone from being nearly unknown to the president to being part of a small cadre of executives accompanying him on Air Force One.

Nvidia has committed at least $26 million to Trump's pet projects, including $25 million toward his White House ballroom and $1 million to his 2025 inaugural fund. The company initially sought to keep its ballroom contribution anonymous, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Its ballroom pledge was tied with Apple's for the largest disclosed corporate contribution, the Post reported.

Those ties are drawing renewed scrutiny from congressional Democrats including Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who pressed Huang in November 2025 about Nvidia's ballroom donation and White House contacts. Blumenthal re-upped his warning on Thursday, while expected incoming House oversight Chairman Robert Garcia, D-Calif., vowed to investigate corporate corruption when Democrats take control in January.

House Republican committee leaders on Thursday asked Jensen Huang to sit for a closed-door briefing on his ties with Alice Huang, saying recent reports "raise significant national security concerns regarding the PRC's access to sensitive U.S. technology and information."

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