The Washington Post revealed on the 13th that Huida founder Huang Renxun had long relied on his close relationship with US President Trump to successfully promote the relaxation of AI chip export restrictions to China, causing dissatisfaction among China hawks. The key figure who contributed to Huang Renxun's downfall was none other than US Secretary of State Rubio. With Huang Renxun withdrawing from Huida's leadership core, Washington's China hardliners have won a major victory, and the U.S. chip blockade policy against China may escalate.
The Washington Post reported that Huang had unusual influence within the Trump administration in the past. He not only had direct access to the president, but also successfully persuaded Trump to approve Huida's sale of some advanced artificial intelligence chips to China. However, such political influence has also triggered a backlash within the government. Two former government officials revealed that some national security officials in the Trump administration have long been dissatisfied with Huang's ability to influence the president's science and technology policy toward China.
Reports pointed out that Huang Jensen's downfall may represent a major change in the power structure in Washington, and one of the key figures driving the development of the incident is Rubio, who has long taken a tough stance against China.
A person familiar with the matter revealed that Rubio submitted a memo to Trump based on intelligence obtained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), warning that Huang had an inappropriate relationship with a woman suspected of conducting intelligence activities for China. The person, who requested anonymity because it involves classified intelligence, pointed out that Rubio did not directly hand over the original CIA report, but wrote a separate memo based on the intelligence content and reinterpreted the relevant findings in stronger and clearer terms.
When the content of the memo was exposed through news reports, the incident quickly spread, eventually triggering a chain effect of Huang Renxun's resignation.
Jen-Hsun Huang admitted that he had an extramarital affair with a female senior executive of a client company of Huida and publicly apologized. U.S. intelligence agencies suspect that the woman is connected to Chinese intelligence services, but the espionage charges remain within the intelligence agency's suspicions.
Huida's board of directors subsequently launched an investigation and originally expressed support for Huang Renxun's continued leadership of the company. However, as the media further revealed that he also had an extramarital affair with another Huida executive, the board of directors began to re-evaluate his stay. Huang finally resigned on Thursday morning, ending his long tenure at the helm of the AI chip giant.
Despite the scandal surrounding Jen-Hsun Huang, Trump has publicly supported him. After Huang resigned, Trump described him as a "legend" and praised his past performance as outstanding.
During this week's G7 summit in Paris, Rubio repeatedly refused to answer reporters' questions about his role in the Huang scandal.
When a reporter asked whether the accusations of Chinese espionage had changed his views on the U.S.-China AI negotiations, Rubio responded that the Chinese system will always prioritize its own interests, and the United States will also prioritize U.S. interests, and his job is to serve the American people.
The report analyzed that Huang Renxun's departure from Huida was a major victory for the hawks in Washington who had long hoped to weaken his influence on Trump. It also marked a major turning point in the years-long behind-the-scenes struggle between Huida and US national security officials.
These China hawks span both the Democratic and Republican parties and include government officials, members of Congress and think tank researchers. They believe that China poses an important competitive threat to the United States in the military and technological fields, and Huida's most advanced AI chips are a key strategic asset in the technological competition between the United States and China. Therefore, the United States must strictly restrict China's acquisition of relevant technologies.
In the past, Huang Renxun had an advantage in this policy battle due to his close relationship with Trump. However, with the tech giant famous for his leather-clad image sadly out of office, China's hardliners are preparing to seize the opportunity to push the US government to adopt stricter chip export restrictions.
Currently, China hardliners in the U.S. Congress are actively promoting new chip control measures, hoping to include relevant provisions in an important defense bill passed before the end of this year.
Republican Congressman Robert Mueller, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Special Committee on China, has long had differences with Huida on the issue of chip exports. He advocated that Congress should further restrict the flow of advanced chips to China and asked Huida's new leadership team to make U.S. national security a top priority.
Mullenar said Huang's dismissal from the company he founded was an unfortunate outcome that could have been avoided. He emphasized that the success of Huida and other leading American AI companies is in the national interest of the United States, but American companies should never endanger U.S. national security in order to allow Chinese companies to obtain the most advanced chips.
A former Trump administration official revealed that many people within Trump’s national security team do not agree with the president’s stance on relaxing chip exports. The former official was involved in chip policy development and still maintains ties to industry. He described the special relationship between Huang Renxun and Trump as a "nuclear bomb" with huge destructive power for officials responsible for national security policy.
The former official bluntly stated that the purpose of some people is to destroy Huang Renxun's influence on Trump.
Fedasiuk, a senior researcher at the Foundation for American Innovation, pointed out that Huang Renxun personally played the role of Huida policy advocate in Washington in the past and actively promoted the idea of maintaining technological openness to China. But with Huang Jensen stepping down, this important political influence will also disappear. Fedasiuk, a long-time supporter of chip export controls, said the incident has permanently changed the situation.
Neither Huida nor the White House responded to requests for comment on related reports, while the CIA declined to comment.
In fact, the differences between Huida and US national security officials stem from the rapid increase in the status of AI technology in global strategic competition. In the past few decades, Huida chips have been mainly used in video games and computer graphics computing, and have not been a core issue of US national security policy. However, with the rise of generative AI, advanced computing chips have gradually become an important resource that determines the country's technological, economic and military competitiveness.
During the Biden administration, U.S. officials began to regard AI as a new battlefield for competition between the United States and China. They believed that related technologies could reshape the military and economic strength of both countries, and therefore continued to strengthen chip export controls to China.
But Huang Renxun always holds a different view. He advocated that American chip companies should continue to sell products to China and let Chinese companies rely on American technology, ecosystem and computing platforms. This will not only benefit the revenue of American companies, but also maintain the United States' dominant position in the global AI industry.
After the Biden administration tightened export controls, the Trump administration changed some policies last year and approved Huida's sale of some of its high-end chips to China, on the condition that the U.S. government can obtain a certain percentage of related sales revenue.
In December last year, when Trump announced his approval for the export of a new type of chips, U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnick revealed that the relevant arrangements were reached through direct negotiations between Huang and Trump. Lutnick described in an interview with CNBC at the time that this was a direct dialogue between a top American technology expert and a president with a business background, and the two parties finally reached a decision that they believed was in line with the situation at the time.
However, this decision-making model has also raised doubts within the US government about the national security review process. Two former Commerce Department officials revealed that an official appointed by Trump to the department responsible for reviewing export licenses expedited the processing of Huida chip export applications. The two spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of professional reprisal.
One of the former officials said that at that time, relevant units issued licenses as quickly as possible, but without sufficient review of the transaction partners, it was difficult to confirm whether export approval would harm U.S. national security.
The U.S. Commerce Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The conflict between Huang Renxun and China hawks has also surfaced publicly. In September 2025, Huang Renxun made sharp criticism of self-proclaimed "China hawks" in Washington in a podcast interview. He believes the title should not be viewed as an honor, but as a source of shame. Huang Renxun said at the time that these people thought they were doing the right thing for the country, but this was not called patriotism at all.
These remarks immediately triggered a counterattack from Washington think tanks and congressional staff. Some staff members even designed badges with the words "China Hawks" on them and passed them around to respond to Huang's criticism. At the time, Sellers, managing director of consulting firm Beacon Global Strategies, posted on social media that this group of people had "very good memories." As Jen-Hsun Huang's scandal continues to expand in recent days, he has shared this passage again.
As for the crisis within Huida, it worsened rapidly in just a few days. Huida's board of directors recently announced an investigation to clarify whether the relationship between Huang Renxun and the woman suspected of Chinese intelligence activities jeopardized the company's security. The board of directors still issued a statement at the time, expressing its confidence in Huang Renxun's leadership.
However, a few days later, the New York Times further reported that Huang also had an extramarital affair with another Huida senior executive. The board of directors therefore held a meeting on Wednesday to re-evaluate his future, and Huang Renxun finally resigned on the 12th.
Reports indicate that in fact, before Huang Renxun resigned, opponents in Washington had already expected that his influence within the Trump administration would be severely weakened.
Last year, the U.S. Congress promoted a bill that requires chip manufacturers to prove that they can meet the order needs of U.S. customers before exporting products to China to ensure that U.S. companies have priority in obtaining critical AI computing resources.
During the review of the bill, Massachusetts Democratic Senator Warren issued a statement stating that Huang met privately with a number of important Republican senators to lobby against relevant legislation. The bill ultimately failed to pass.
Now that Huang has lost his position as CEO of Huida, the chairman of the Republican Congressional Committee also plans to ask him to appear to explain his relationship with the woman suspected of being a Chinese spy.
Under this circumstance, supporters of the three new chip control bills said that their confidence in promoting the passage of the bills has increased significantly, and they hope that relevant measures will be included in the annual defense bill. The three measures include imposing tighter export restrictions on the most powerful AI chips, requiring chips to have built-in technology that can detect smuggling, and restricting China's access to advanced chip manufacturing equipment.
A Senate Democratic staffer spoke on condition of anonymity because of internal strategy. He revealed that lawmakers who supported export controls in the past have been observing who Huida will send to block relevant bills. But with the full exposure of the Jen-Hsun Huang scandal, Huida is now in a very difficult political situation.
It is worth noting that although the Trump administration has approved the export of some Huida chips to China, it has never allowed its most powerful Blackwell chips to be sold to China. Indiana Republican Senator Banks said it is time for Congress to close chip export loopholes and crack down on black market transactions.
Banks pointed out that the problem of obtaining controlled chips through smuggling, shell buyers and remote access methods has existed for too long and the U.S. government cannot continue to let it go. He emphasized that Huida’s primary responsibility should be to serve American customers and maintain U.S. national security. Congress currently has a number of bills ready to close relevant loopholes, and he is more confident than ever that these bills will eventually be passed.
With Huang Renxun withdrawing from Huida's leadership core, this storm triggered by extramarital affairs and suspected espionage activities is no longer just a personal scandal for the technology giant, but also affects the power struggle within the US government over China's technology policy.
In the past, Jen-Hsun Huang advocated making Chinese companies dependent on American technology through the continued supply of American chips; China hawks in Washington believe that this approach may allow China to obtain key resources needed to strengthen its AI and military capabilities.
Now, as Huang loses his original political influence, officials and members of Congress who have long advocated strengthening export controls are seeking to regain control of U.S. technology policy toward China. The subsequent impact of this storm may extend from Huida’s board of directors to the future of competition for AI chips between the United States and China.
