(LR) Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies, and Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, USA, attended the “American Golden Age of Innovation Summit” held at the Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, on October 8, 2026.
Kent Nishimura | AFP | Getty Images
scandal that ensues Nvidia Co-op CEO Jensen Huang is stepping up calls from U.S. lawmakers for tighter restrictions on China’s access to advanced AI chips, days ahead of President Donald Trump’s scheduled meeting with Xi Jinping next week.
The United States and China are locked in a race for global AI supremacy, and the U.S. government has restricted China’s access to Nvidia’s cutting-edge chips for years in an effort to slow China’s technological progress. Mr. Huang has been one of the most vocal opponents of the United States’ strict export controls on advanced chips to China, which has irritated some China hawks.
The alleged affair with Alice Huang, a Chinese national who was allegedly scouted by Chinese intelligence to gather intelligence, has given lawmakers new ammunition to push for a series of chip control measures to be included in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
The bill includes the AI Surveillance Act, the Chip Security Act, and the MATCH Act, all of which aim to limit the flow of advanced chips to America’s adversaries, particularly China.
David Mir, a U.S. diplomat who heads Eurasia Group’s China office and served as deputy charge d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, said Huang was “the industry’s most effective lobbyist against increased regulation.”
But the scandal weakened Nvidia’s “unique ability to slow the bill,” which had been stalled by pushback from companies and the White House, “making it politically difficult for negotiators to remove the tipping provision from this year’s NDAA,” Mehl said.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday called on Congress to pass the bills and demanded a full explanation of Trump’s defense of Hwang. House China Select Committee Chairman John Moolener (R-Mich.) also called for chip export controls to be included in the annual defense policy bill.
Kyle Chan, a China researcher at the Brookings Institution, said President Trump’s weakening grip on Congressional Republicans following his defeat in the midterm elections also makes it harder for the Trump administration to rein in such measures.
Target offshore hubs
The fallout from the Jensen Huang incident could bring new scrutiny to offshore data center hubs that provide Chinese customers with access to Nvidia’s chips, which are restricted from being exported directly to China.
According to The Information, Alice Huang helped facilitate at least $7.5 billion in shipments of Nvidia chips to China.
Short-selling firm Calper Research estimated in May that more than 20% of Nvidia’s revenue for the year ending July 2025, or about $43.2 billion, came from China through illegal GPU diversion and intermediaries in Southeast Asia.
Pressure is mounting in the White House on President Trump to address remote access to restricted chips, “making it more likely that action will be taken,” said Gabriel Wildow, managing director at political risk consulting firm Teneo. Possible escalations, he said, include blacklisting MegaSpeed and other companies and introducing rules to close loopholes altogether.
The Commerce Department is finalizing rules aimed at preventing Chinese AI companies from remotely accessing advanced chips through data centers in other countries, according to The Information. The effort, long opposed by technology companies including Nvidia, has gained new momentum in the wake of Nvidia’s revelations.
More Chinese AI companies are reportedly starting to seek out Nvidia-powered computing power in data centers outside China, while traders and intermediaries are stocking up on these processors in anticipation of a tightening U.S. crackdown.
Bills like the Remote Access Security Act passed by the House of Representatives in January, if passed next year, would increase compliance risks for cloud and data center operators based outside of China, including in Southeast Asia, serving Chinese customers, Mehr said.
shenzhen summit
The new move to tighten chip controls comes just days before Trump is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen on November 18-19.
Despite the political firestorm in Washington over the spying scandal, Wildau said President Trump seems “uninterested,” at least for now. He said Trump and Xi are expected to continue steering the relationship toward extending the truce beyond January.
Chinese authorities have made it clear that they are willing to pass the bill, which could tighten regulations on rare earths and magnets that would greatly harm U.S. industry.
paul toriolo
DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group Partner
“We want to build a constructive relationship based on balance and reciprocity,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is scheduled to visit China for next week’s summit, said on Tuesday.
However, there remains a risk that the latest developments could create new friction with the Chinese government. Paul Triolo, partner at DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group, pointed to the MATCH Act, which would put pressure on Japan and the Netherlands to tighten regulations on semiconductor manufacturing tools already in China, as a threat to Busan Ceasefire.
“Chinese authorities have made it clear that they are willing to pass this bill, which could lead to stricter regulations on rare earths and magnets that would greatly harm U.S. industry,” he said.
It remains unclear whether Mr. Huang, who played a key role in President Trump’s visit to Beijing in May and President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington in September, will be part of next week’s delegation. Asked on Sunday if he planned to take Hwang with him, Trump said: “I don’t know, but I would definitely take him.”
