By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Republican US Senator Kevin Cramer from the Senate Banking Committee has called on Jensen Huang to step down as Nvidia CEO after revelations of the tech executive’s affair with a Chinese businesswoman alleged to be a spy for Beijing.
“The potential for extortion is so tremendous that something as sensitive as Nvidia chips, I just think he’s got to go,” Cramer told Politico late on Tuesday.
“If the worst thing he did in real life is infidelity with this woman who may or may not be a Chinese spy — but she might be — that’s enough, because whatever else there is, we don’t know. And to me, that’s a security risk.”
The CEO is facing an investigation by the AI chipmaker’s board after a New York Times report that he had an affair with the businesswoman suspected by US security services of being a Chinese intelligence asset.
The FBI was also looking into Huang’s affair with the businesswoman, President Donald Trump said on Monday.
China’s foreign ministry has called the spying accusations “groundless” and “a smear.”
Nvidia has said its board has no reason to believe US national security or company secrets were compromised and that Huang has committed to cooperating with an internal review.
Huang has told employees he was unfaithful to his wife, but has provided no details about the relationship.
Huang is one of Trump’s closest allies in Silicon Valley. Over the past two years, he has repeatedly voiced support for the Trump administration’s agenda and become a regular presence in Washington as Nvidia sought to sell advanced chips to the Chinese market.
Democrats have demanded tighter curbs on chip exports to China.
Trump said on Monday he had spoken to the Nvidia CEO, who told him he had no idea the woman was a spy. Trump said he believed Huang.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; editing by Michelle Nichols and Lincoln Feast.)
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