Is the anti-AI wave bringing disaster to Jen-Hsun Huang? Stocks plunge, subpoenaed by Congress

The U.S. Department of Energy stated that the White House "President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology" meeting originally scheduled for November 6 has been temporarily canceled. The committee includes Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, META CEO Mark Zuckerberg, AMD CEO Lisa Su and other executives from technology companies. The DOE website briefly listed November 13 as the new date for the meeting, but then sent an email invalidating the notice.

According to the original meeting notice, the committee was supposed to provide advice to Trump’s newly established artificial intelligence task force, known as the “Superintelligence Task Force.” The latter includes a number of Cabinet officials, White House staff and other appointees of President Trump. “Super Intelligence” is President Trump’s preferred term for artificial intelligence. The White House did not disclose why the meeting was canceled or postponed.

Just the day before (November 5), technology stocks suffered a sharp sell-off. Financial markets are increasingly worried that the new Democratic-controlled Congress may slow down the development of artificial intelligence (AI), and are also worried that huge capital expenditures in building AI infrastructure may not bring sufficient returns. The market turmoil has prompted Silicon Valley executives and policymakers in Washington to step up scrutiny of the industry.

Over the past two years, many Silicon Valley technology leaders have worked hard to build relationships with President Trump. With the Republican Party's defeat in the U.S. congressional midterm elections this week, these Silicon Valley bosses are facing the threat of subpoenas from the Democratic-controlled Congress. In this election, voters’ aversion to artificial intelligence and related data center construction largely affected voting preferences.

Currently, Greg Casar, chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has said: "CEOs of artificial intelligence companies should be subpoenaed and asked to testify under oath." Democratic Senator Ed Markey warned technology executives that in view of the large number of subpoenas that Congress is about to issue, they may have to "plant more trees to provide paper for printing these subpoenas." The newly elected Michigan Democratic Senator Abdul El-Sayed even made a radical proposal to implement a "comprehensive moratorium" on the research and development of the most powerful artificial intelligence. He also called on the United States and China to sign a treaty to "pause and ban superintelligence," that is, artificial intelligence that surpasses human intelligence.

As the newly elected members officially take office on January 3 next year, the Democratic Party will have full control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. At that time, they will be able to use various committees to compel corporate executives to testify or submit internal documents, otherwise they will face the risk of prosecution.

According to NBC exit polls, 56% of voters in this election believed that artificial intelligence and data center issues were "key or major considerations" when making their voting choices. Adam Kovacevich, CEO of the Chamber of Progress, an influential centrist coalition funded by several large technology companies, said, "We should not confuse the 'anti-Trump wave' with the 'opposition to the tech industry's public mandate.'"

In fact, many pro-Republican forces are now beginning to oppose the construction of artificial intelligence and data centers. During the live broadcast on election night, Chamath Palihapitiya, a podcast hosted by many well-known pro-Trump technology industry investors, warned, "If anything can destroy the U.S. economy, it must be the artificial intelligence industry; and the only way to destroy the artificial intelligence industry is to destroy the data center." Even market analyst Dan Ives (Dan Ives), who is known for his bullish outlook on technology growth Ives now estimates that 10% of the 800 to 1,000 new data centers planned in the United States "will never be built."

In addition to the anti-AI trend in the U.S. government and opposition parties, there is another thing that also gives Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang a headache. An email reviewed by Reuters showed that senior Republican members of the House of Representatives are asking Huang to brief Congress on the relevant situation within November. Not long ago, the New York Times disclosed that U.S. authorities were investigating a Chinese woman surnamed Huang who was an executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, which purchased artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Nvidia. U.S. authorities have been scrutinizing Megaspeed over suspicions that the company helped Beijing obtain advanced AI chips that are banned from export to China.

In a letter sent on November 4, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, Special Committee on U.S.-China Strategic Competition Chairman John Moolenaar, and Intelligence Committee Member Eric Crawford requested that Huang conduct a closed-door briefing on November 18 regarding the New York Times report and Nvidia’s “security procedures for espionage by foreign hostile forces.” They wrote in the letter that the report raised "significant national security concerns regarding (China's) access to sensitive U.S. technology and information." "It is critical that Congress determine the extent to which U.S. national security is at stake," they added.

Nvidia said Huang "interacts with thousands of customer executives every year." The company emphasized that what its cloud service customers in Asia obtained was only general business information, not Nvidia's sensitive trade secrets, nor did it involve anything related to U.S. national security. "We receive frequent notifications from the U.S. government regarding parties and entities of concern and always act accordingly."