Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick blocked three presidentially approved crackdowns on Nvidia chip diversion to China — in May, August and on Nov. 5 — according to Axios reporting, and he now stands as the central figure in escalating congressional investigations into how advanced U.S. chips kept flowing to Beijing.

The scrutiny follows Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang's resignation Thursday, after reports of affairs with a direct report and with Alice Huang, a suspected Chinese spy. Megaspeed, the Singapore-based data center firm where Alice Huang served as an executive, bought billions of dollars of Nvidia chips and was long suspected of funneling them to China. The national security questions Huang leaves behind keep growing, and by multiple accounts the trail runs through Lutnick's department.

What did Commerce do — and stop doing?

Commerce agents began investigating Megaspeed in 2024, under the Biden administration. The New York Times reported that in 2025, Nvidia's general counsel emailed those agents directly, citing permission from Lutnick's export-control chief, Jeffrey Kessler. Commerce soon paused its work on the probe.

Megaspeed never landed on the entity list — the blacklist that cuts suspect firms off from American technology. The Financial Times reported that the State, Treasury and Energy departments and the Pentagon pushed aggressively to add the firm. Lutnick's Commerce Department refused to add a single company to the entity list for more than a year, according to CNN.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton wrote to Lutnick directly, urging a more careful Megaspeed investigation. In May, the Times reported, Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversaw a highly classified assessment built on electronic surveillance of Alice Huang. It concluded that China's Ministry of State Security had recruited her to gather intelligence on Jensen Huang and on America's AI chips, and that Beijing may have aimed to steer Nvidia into pressing Washington for greater Chinese access. Axios reported Lutnick received the memo directly before Trump's May trip to China. That same month, Reuters reported, Commerce cleared about 10 Chinese companies to buy H200 chips.

As Axios reporters Maria Curi and Marc Caputo wrote: "One administration official has repeatedly stood in the way: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick" — noting that virtually every other administration official, and even Elon Musk, supported the crackdowns. Last week, Axios reported, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confronted Lutnick over the resistance, particularly on Megaspeed, with nearly all officials siding with Bessent.

Who is turning against Lutnick?

His chief antagonists sit inside his own cabinet. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton all reportedly favor a far tougher approach.

Republicans in Congress have joined them. Sen. John Kennedy says Lutnick must explain himself "in front of God and country." Rep. Bill Huizenga called Lutnick's lack of responsiveness to Congress "frustrating," and House China Committee Chair John Moolenaar and Foreign Affairs Chair Brian Mast have voiced similar displeasure.

Democratic senators are demanding records. After last week's midterms — which delivered the House and Senate to Democrats — the party takes the committee gavels in January, and Lutnick ranks among their top targets.

What conflicts follow Lutnick beyond the chips?

The incoming majorities arrive with files already thick. In January, Commerce announced a tentative $1.6 billion deal giving the government a roughly 10% stake in USA Rare Earth. To close it, the company raised $1.5 billion privately and chose as lead placement agent Cantor Fitzgerald — the firm Lutnick led for decades and which his son Brandon, 27 when he took over, now chairs. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden and Chris Van Hollen have pressed for documents since February, citing the company CEO's credit to Lutnick's personal involvement.

Cantor has been custodian of Tether's reserves since 2021. Sen. Richard Blumenthal says Cantor's stake has grown from about $600 million to an estimated $10 billion since Trump returned to office. A trust for Lutnick's children reportedly borrowed from Tether around the time he transferred his Cantor stake to them, and Cantor launched the bitcoin treasury company Twenty One Capital (XXI) with Tether — an arrangement Blumenthal is already questioning.

Epstein ties add another exposure. Lutnick long said he cut ties in 2005, but Justice Department files showed a 2012 family visit to Epstein's island, a shared investment and emails as late as 2018 — conduct critics called "grossly deceptive." Rep. Thomas Massie called for his resignation in February, and Democrats deemed his May closed-door testimony to House Oversight evasive.

Is there a defense?

Lutnick's defenders frame his stance as executing Trump's implicit trade deal: chips for rare earths. The argument has weaknesses. The U.S. holds large rare earth reserves needing only sustained investment, and the deal logic did not stop Rubio or Bessent from registering concerns. Trump himself has endorsed former Apple CEO Tim Cook as Nvidia's next chief — a leader who balanced China commerce with national security compliance without suspicion of enabling illicit chip flows.

For practitioners, the practical read is stark: export-control enforcement, entity-list designations and Nvidia's China revenue all now hinge on investigations that Democrats will lead with subpoena power from January. Every thread — Megaspeed, the memo, the Tether stake — poses the same question Cicero asked: cui bono? Whose interests came first, and whose side was he really on?