White House Officials Weigh Pushing Out Lutnick Over Nvidia China Export Oversight

The Commerce Department administers US export controls, including the trade blacklist that requires licences for sales of American technology to listed foreign companies. Lawmakers have criticised Lutnick both for the administration's refusal to add dozens of Chinese companies to that list and over whether the government properly oversaw Nvidia's exports to China. A change at the top of the department would put a new official in charge of those decisions while Nvidia is run by an interim chief and preparing to report quarterly results next week.

The White House and the Commerce Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment after the report. Earlier on Thursday, a White House official said President Donald Trump "maintains complete confidence in the secretary and his ability to carry out the position."

The complaints about Lutnick predate Huang's resignation. The US has not posted any additions to the blacklist since October 2025, the longest gap between new postings in more than a decade. Reuters reported in June that the administration had held off adding Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, memory chipmaker CXMT and more than 100 other companies flagged as national security risks, and has reported that the department held back for fear of escalating tensions with Beijing. Axios reported on Wednesday that Lutnick stalled a Trump crackdown on companies suspected of diverting Nvidia chips to China.

Huang said he would step down after reports of an affair with Alice Huang, whom US authorities suspect of spying for Beijing. She was an executive of Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company that has bought more than $4.8 billion of advanced Nvidia AI chips since June 2024. Nvidia's statement announcing Huang's resignation did not address his conduct. Huang had argued for more chip exports to China, against repeated calls from China hawks in both parties to restrict Beijing's access to the technology.

The pressure on Lutnick is coming from Republicans as well as Democrats. Asked on CNN whether Lutnick should lose his job, Republican Senator John Kennedy said: "I don't know yet." He added: "This is as serious as an aneurism." Republican Senator Jim Banks told Fox News that Lutnick should testify "ASAP" before the Senate Banking Committee and said he had "used loopholes to allow some of these chip sales to occur." Senate Intelligence Committee chair Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, urged Lutnick to bar CXMT from the US market and cut it off from American technology. CXMT did not respond to a request for comment.

Representative Brian Mast, a Florida Republican, said Congress needs to investigate the Commerce Department's role in approving chip exports, but said he has confidence in Lutnick.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who becomes chair of the Senate Banking Committee in January, said Lutnick and Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler "must explain why they have not closed export control loopholes and act today to ensure our advanced technology is not fueling China's military." She and Senator Chris Coons, the incoming chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have written to Lutnick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House chief of staff Stephen Miller asking them to preserve all documents on Nvidia's exports of advanced AI chips to China.

Separately, Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Richard Neal, the top Democrats on the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees, told Lutnick they are investigating the approval of Nvidia chip sales to Chinese companies "with concerning links to the Chinese government, military, and sanctioned entities." They also questioned Trump's December 2025 decision to let Nvidia sell its H200 chips to China in exchange for a share of the sales, which they called "an unconstitutional export tax."

Lutnick, a Wall Street veteran who co-chaired Trump's transition team, has been friends with the president for three decades. Kennedy and other lawmakers have said he will be called to appear before Congress to answer questions on the export approvals.