By David Morgan
WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) – US House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Thursday there was a growing consensus in Congress on limiting exports of semiconductor chips to China after a scandal forced out Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
“The export controls on chips to China has been a big issue around here. I’m in favor of limiting those exports, and I think there’s a developing consensus in Congress that is an important position to take. Especially in the light of recent developments, it makes sense,” Johnson told reporters.
“So we’ll see where that goes. I think it might change a few minds around here.”
Nvidia said on Thursday that Huang is stepping down, leaving the AI industry without its biggest champion and clouding the future of the chipmaker he built into an AI powerhouse.
Pressure mounted on Huang after reports he had an affair with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman who US authorities suspect of spying for Beijing. She was an executive at Megaspeed, a Nvidia cloud partner that Washington suspects of helping China obtain advanced AI chips restricted under US export controls.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast on Thursday told reporters that congressional staff spoke with Nvidia’s team on Wednesday night, and he expects Huang to testify to Congress sometime within the next week. Mast and two other leading House Republicans asked Huang last week to brief them behind closed doors about his relationship with Alice Huang.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Writing by Doina Chiacu and Courtney Rozen in WashingtonEditing by David Ljunggren and David Gaffen)
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