Nvidia scandal fallout widens as Trump's treasury secretary blames cabinet colleague

What the report says

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has publicly blamed the Commerce Department, led by Howard Lutnick, over what he described as delays and failures in restricting exports of advanced Nvidia chips. Speaking to CNBC, Bessent said several agencies had wanted Megaspeed placed on the export-control “entity list” for months, but that Commerce held the authority to act. The company had reportedly been under U.S. scrutiny over suspicions that chips were being diverted toward China, though it is not currently on the restricted list.

The BBC reports that the row comes amid a wider scandal involving Nvidia and its former chief executive Jensen Huang, who left the company after revelations about an affair with a former Megaspeed executive who was also alleged to be a Chinese spy. The article says congressional pressure is intensifying, with senators and other lawmakers seeking records from the Commerce Department and summoning both Huang and Lutnick to testify.

Bessent also shifted some responsibility toward Nvidia itself, saying the key question is whether the company knew who its customer was and whether it made enough effort to prevent chips from being funneled through shell companies. The controversy matters because it touches both U.S. national security and the Biden-era and Trump-era debate over how to limit China’s access to high-end AI hardware. As background, export-control lists are one of the main tools Washington uses to block sales to entities considered a security risk.