A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Jensen Huang hasn't commented publicly on recent events. He stepped down as CEO of Nvidia following allegations of extramarital affairs, including with a suspected Chinese spy. President Trump has been very friendly with Huang this term, and now there are questions about who knew what and when about the extramarital relationship and how it all affects policy. NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is here to talk about this. So, Danielle, let's find out the latest on this because the two men are very, very close. So what's the president been saying about Huang?
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Well, Trump has remained very supportive. On Monday, he said he had talked to Huang that day, quote, "just to see if he's feeling all right." And after Huang's resignation, Trump said he had done a fantastic job. Now, as to what comes next, Trump said he wants former Apple CEO Tim Cook to take over the company. Of course, it's not up to Trump, and we haven't heard a response from Cook yet. But however Trump feels about Huang, all of this is now raising some really serious questions for the White House, especially Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
MARTÍNEZ: Why that?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, commerce handles imports and exports. So a big question here is, should the U.S. have more tightly restricted the chips it exports? And so lawmakers from both parties have been saying they want more information from Lutnick, especially about timing. One big thing at issue is, when did he know that Huang was in contact with a suspected Chinese asset, and what did or didn't he do in response? And last night, South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott, chair of the Banking Committee, said he's summoning Huang and Lutnick to hearings in December. Now, Trump, for his part, said this week that he didn't recall receiving a memo with information about a suspected Chinese asset.
MARTÍNEZ: When it comes to Trump and Huang, I mean, what's their relationship look like?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, at least publicly, it's been a love fest. Trump has praised Huang a lot. Huang has spent a lot of time with the president in turn. He's visited the White House and Mar-a-Lago. He went to the U.K. for the president's state visit last year, and he went with the president to China this year. But there's more than visits at work here. Huang and the White House negotiated that the government would get a 15% cut of the sales of certain Nvidia chips to China.
And there's also this big question of what Huang's influence is. Here's one example. In spring of 2025, Huang attended a $1-million-a-head dinner at Mar-a-Lago, and as my colleagues, Emily Feng and Bobby Allyn reported at the time, the Trump administration had been expected to restrict sales to China of an Nvidia chip called the H20. Well, then after that dinner, the White House put the H20 restrictions on hold, and Nvidia promised new investments in U.S. AI centers. Now, we can't draw the direct cause-and-effect line there, but there's good reason to think this relationship has been great for Huang and Nvidia.
MARTÍNEZ: And now the president will be visiting China next week. I mean, how does all that affect this trip?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, Trump was asked about this this week, and he didn't have much to say on the subject, but it is possible that this doesn't really impact Trump and Xi's conversations much at all. Kurt Tong is managing partner at The Asia Group - that's a consulting firm - and he told my colleague Deepa Shivaram this this week.
KURT TONG: I think the main impact is here in the United States, where there are calls for accountability with respect to Mr. Huang's activities, and the net result of that is to provide a tailwind to persons who are interested in tightening up the technology denial regime toward China.
KURTZLEBEN: Now, AI is always a major topic when the two leaders meet, so they'll discuss it. But for now, all eyes are really on that accountability piece and those potential restrictions.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thanks a lot.
KURTZLEBEN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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