White House discusses Lutnick's future over AI chip exports to China after Nvidia scandal

Senior White House officials are discussing whether Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick should be pushed out over how the U.S. Department of Commerce has handled AI chip exports to China, two people familiar with the situation told Reuters, as reported by HuffPost. Earlier on Thursday, a White House official said President Donald Trump "maintains complete confidence in the secretary."

Lawmakers have criticised Lutnick for the administration's refusal to add dozens of Chinese companies to the US trade blacklist, the Entity List, and over its oversight of NVIDIA's exports to China. Reuters reported in June that the administration held off adding the AI startup DeepSeek, memory chipmaker CXMT and more than 100 other companies flagged as security risks. No additions have been posted since October 2025, the longest gap in more than a decade.

The pressure grew after Jensen Huang resigned as NVIDIA chief executive over reports of an affair with Alice Huang, an executive of Singapore-based Megaspeed whom US authorities suspect of spying for Beijing. Megaspeed has bought more than $4.8 billion of advanced NVIDIA chips since June 2024. Axios reported that Lutnick stalled a crackdown Trump authorised on companies suspected of diverting NVIDIA chips to China, Reuters reports. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons told the administration to preserve all documents on NVIDIA's chip exports to China, and Senator Tom Cotton urged Lutnick to bar CXMT from the US market.