U.S. Democratic Party investigates Trump's 'NVIDIA export approval to China'... Rutnick Aims First

(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Park Seong-min = The spark of the scandal involving former Nvidia CEO Jensen Hwang appears to be rapidly spreading to claims of responsibility for the Donald Trump administration.

The U.S. Congress is listing the process by which the Trump administration approved the export of Nvidia's high-performance semiconductors to China as a subject of investigation amid growing concerns about national security threats due to former CEO Hwang's affair scandal with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy.

First, the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, led by opposition Democratic Party members, began an investigation on the 12th (local time).

CNBC reported that Representative Ron Wyden (Oregon), the Democratic leader of the Senate Finance Committee, and Representative Richard Neal (Massachusetts), the Democratic leader of the House Ways and Means Committee, announced in a joint letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Rutnick that the committee has begun an investigation.

They wrote in the letter that they were investigating the administration's approval of the sale of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors by Nvidia that had "worrying links to the Chinese government, military, and sanctioned entities."

NVIDIA's cutting-edge AI semiconductor refers to 'H200', and in early December of last year, President Trump announced through the social media Truth Social that he would approve the export of this semiconductor to China and other countries and informed Chinese President Xi Jinping of this.

President Trump signed a proclamation in this regard in January of this year. The gist of the proclamation is to impose a 25% tariff on products like H200, which are produced in Taiwan, imported to the United States, and then exported to other countries. President Trump packaged this as "the United States will earn 25% of the sales of those semiconductors."

However, Representatives Wyden and Neal argued that President Trump ignored the threat to national security by approving the export even though he had already been informed of former CEO Hwang's relationship with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy.

They pointed out, "Despite the fact that he was known to have learned of former CEO Hwang's potentially problematic relationship last fall, President Trump approved Nvidia's ability to sell the H200 to China in December of that year, and agreed to receive a certain percentage of export sales in return."

“The Trump administration’s attempt to disguise unconstitutional export taxes as national security tariff measures that benefit both NVIDIA and the Chinese government raises serious concerns in the tariff and customs-related matters within our committee’s jurisdiction.”

These two lawmakers are scheduled to become chairpersons of each standing committee in the 120th Congress early next year when the Democratic Party wins the majority, so the start of this investigation is not expected to end in a short period of time.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York) said on

Representative Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), who will serve as chair of the Senate Banking Committee in the next Congress, also said in a statement that day, "Secretary of Commerce Howard Rutnick and Deputy Secretary of Commerce Jeffrey Kessler must explain why they did not close the export control loophole, and take immediate action to prevent our cutting-edge technology from being used to strengthen China's military power."

As such, Minister Rutnick is becoming a key target of Congress among the Trump administration personnel as controversy grows, including the scandal leading to former CEO Hwang's resignation.

This is because Minister Rutnick also led the push for approval to export Nvidia semiconductors to the public despite circulating confidential information about former CEO Hwang's affair.

In particular, Secretary Rutnick recently clashed with Treasury Secretary Scott Besant in a heated argument at the White House. Secretary Besant reportedly asked why Megaspeed, a Singaporean company where Hwang's then-CEO Hwang's affair wife, Ellison Hwang, once served as an executive, was not placed on the Commerce Department's restricted trading list.

Megaspeed is suspected of illegally exporting Nvidia's semiconductors to China following the U.S. restrictions on exports of cutting-edge AI semiconductors that took effect at the end of 2022.

In this situation, attention is being paid to the future actions of Secretary Rutnick, President Trump's closest associate.

After the news of former CEO Hwang's sudden resignation broke this morning, American media quoted a senior White House official as saying, "President Trump maintains full confidence in Secretary Rutnick."

However, this afternoon, Reuters, citing sources, reported that senior White House officials were discussing the need for Secretary Rutnick's dismissal.