Nvidia needs dramatic shake-up, Bessent demands external CEO after Huang exit

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged Nvidia to appoint an external chief executive and investigate its export compliance. The demands deepen scrutiny after Jensen Huang's resignation amid an alleged espionage-linked scandal.Scott Bessent wants external CEO to lead Nvidia (Photo: Reuters)US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has called for Nvidia to appoint a chief executive from outside the company, saying the chipmaker needs a “dramatic shake-up” following the resignation of Jensen Huang amid an alleged espionage-linked infidelity scandal.Bessent also demanded an urgent investigation into Nvidia's compliance with US export restrictions, questioning whether the company's executives deliberately ignored warning signs about Singapore-based companies allegedly acting as intermediaries to supply advanced AI chips to China.Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Bessent said Nvidia's board should look beyond its existing leadership while searching for Huang's successor.“They need to go outside the company. Just what was going on inside the company, they needed a dramatic shake-up,” he said. Huang resigned on Thursday following revelations about alleged extramarital affairs, including one involving Alice Huang, an alleged Chinese intelligence asset, and another with a senior colleague at Nvidia.The leadership crisis has intensified scrutiny of the world's leading AI chipmaker, which plays a critical role in the global artificial intelligence industry and the US economy. Nvidia has reportedly approached Rene Haas, chief executive of British chipmaker Arm, about taking over the role. AMD CEO Lisa Su is also being viewed as a potential external candidate. US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has suggested that former Apple CEO Tim Cook should lead Nvidia.Among the internal contenders are interim CEO Colette Kress, who previously served as Nvidia's chief financial officer, and Ian Buck, who heads the company's data centre business.Bessent said the company must establish whether its leadership had maintained adequate compliance standards regarding US restrictions on semiconductor exports to China.“Was it a low-level fail? Was it in the middle, or was it up in the C-suite? And who knew?” he asked, questioning whether Nvidia had used shell companies as a workaround to sell restricted chips to China.He also demanded answers from Nvidia's board and external legal advisers within 10 days, warning that authorities would examine whether the company had deliberately overlooked suspicious transactions involving Singapore-based firms.EXPORT CONTROLS UNDER SCRUTINYBessent has repeatedly criticised the Commerce Department, led by Howard Lutnick, for failing to block exports of Nvidia chips to Singapore-based Megaspeed, a company allegedly linked to the Chinese intelligence asset involved in the Huang scandal.US authorities are investigating whether Megaspeed, which builds AI data centres across Asia, was involved in smuggling advanced Nvidia chips into China.The Treasury secretary accused the Commerce Department of delaying efforts to place Megaspeed on Washington's national security blacklist, despite concerns raised by other government departments.“Many other departments were pushing for this, and commerce had the pen,” Bessent said. “We have all the rules we need. We just need them enforced.”Lutnick is facing growing pressure from within the Trump administration and Congress to explain why exports to the Singaporean company were allowed to continue despite the alleged national security links.The controversy has also accelerated efforts by US lawmakers to tighten restrictions on the export of advanced AI chips to China.Comparing Nvidia's alleged compliance failures to violations in the banking sector, Bessent said that if the company were a bank, regulators would already have intervened and removed several executives.HUANG TO TESTIFY BEFORE CONGRESSMeanwhile, Republican Congressman John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said Huang had agreed to testify before Congress.Two other House committees, dealing with foreign affairs and intelligence, have also demanded that the former Nvidia chief appear before their members.The dates for his testimony are still being negotiated, Moolenaar said.He told CBS News that lawmakers wanted to understand whether sensitive information had been accessed and whether the alleged Chinese intelligence asset had influenced Nvidia's corporate approach to artificial intelligence and US export controls.- Ends