--- title: "Nvidia Pulled Strings to Shut Down a US Government Investigation Into Chip Smuggling" description: "Trump and a number of top administration officials have been implicated in the burgeoning scandal surrounding Nvidia and its CEO." date: "2026-11-10" modified: "2026-11-10" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/nvidia-shut-down-government-investigation-chip-smuggling" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Future Society" --- # Nvidia Pulled Strings to Shut Down a US Government Investigation Into Chip Smuggling ![Jensen Huang, NVIDIA founder and CEO greets with his fans after the opening ceremony of new Taiwan factory.]() *jamesonwu1972 / Shutterstock* Over the weekend, tech billionaire and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang publicly admitted that he had [cheated on his wife]() with a suspected Chinese spy. The news sent markets rocking wildly, with investors worrying he could be forced to step down — a move that could trigger even more volatility. One person who was seemingly unsurprised by the revelation was president Donald Trump. As the [*New York Times* reports](), he knew about the affair since at least October 2025 — well over a year ago — and decided to do nothing with that information. And that's just the tip of the iceberg of a burgeoning scandal, as a number of federal agencies have since been implicated in the very literal affair. It's a hair-raising web of ulterior motives, business dealings, and top Trump administration officials making questionable decisions that reportedly had government workers appalled. At the center of the story is the Commerce Department's investigation into Singaporean data center company Megaspeed, which the US government suspected of smuggling Nvidia chips into China as early as September 2024, months before Trump took office for the second time. Part of the Commerce Department's investigation was looking into Megaspeed executive Alice Huang — the woman with whom Jensen Huang (no relation) had an extramarital affair with since at least June 2024, according to the *NYT*. Fast forward to August 2025, when Nvidia's general counsel Tim Teter tried to meet with the Department of Commerce officials after claiming that Trump appointee and under secretary of commerce for industry and security Jeffrey Kessler had given him permission. It was an interaction that reportedly shocked government officials, who promptly turned down the offer to meet with Teter. Sources told the *NYT* that Kessler may have "opened himself to accusations of undue influence and potentially jeopardized his department’s work" on the investigation. The ongoing probe was then dumped on the Justice Department, in an apparent effort to protect it — which then instructed the Department of Commerce to stand down, according to the *NYT*'s sources. It's a staggering series of revelations that leave plenty of glaring questions unanswered. One glaring example: why did Trump decide not to take action after being informed of Huang's affair with a woman directly tied to a company that was actively being investigated under the suspicion of smuggling Nvidia chips into China? As time goes on, even more top Trump officials are being implicated in the story. In [separate reporting](), the *NYT* also found that secretary of state Marco Rubio knew about a "highly classified memo" in the spring of this year that warned Trump admin officials of Huang's affair. Huang's admission about the infidelity on Sunday triggered a major media circus. "I was unfaithful to my wife," he said in a memo to Nvidia employees. "My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry." Considering how many government officials — including the president himself — were implicated or even directly knew about his affair with an alleged spy for up to over a year, his actions may end up hurting far more people than that. The news also couldn't come at a worse time for the Trump administration. Democrats, who handily defeated Republicans in last week's midterm elections, are already [vowing to hold Trump's feet to the fire]() and launch major probes into his "[tentacles of corruption]()." Meanwhile, the president is doing a poor job of covering for the disgraced billionaire. During a press briefing on Monday, he called Huang an "amazing guy," arguing that the CEO was "suffering greatly" after extensively cheating on his wife. Trump also let it slip that the "[FBI's looking into it in terms of something else]()," without offering any further clarification. In other words, we wouldn't be surprised of plenty more revelations still to come. **More on Huang:** [*We Are Now Learning in Real Time Whether the Stock Market Cares About an AI Executive Admitting to an Affair With an Alleged Chinese Spy*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() ## More - [We Are Now Learning in Real Time Whether the Stock Market Cares About an AI Executive Admitting to an Affair With an Alleged Chinese Spy]() - [Elon Musk Being Investigated for Violating Terms of “Top Secret” Clearance]() - [Elon Musk Says DOGE Will Now Shut Down Government Payments He Doesn’t Like]() - [Trump Shutting Down Cancer Research]() - [Elon Musk Throws Tantrum, Ordering Congress to Shut Down Government]() - [Elon Musk Reportedly Wants the Government to Shut Down So He Can Do Something Dark]() - [Trump Admin to Shut Down TikTok App Downloads on Sunday]() - [Anthropic Secretly Lobbying Government to Only Shut Down an AI Model If It’s Poised to Kill More Than 50 People]()