Warren said Huang should have time to answer questions from Congress if he could attend a Mar-a-Lago dinner and fly to meet President Xi in China
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The ranking Democrat on the committee, Warren, had sought Huang's presence at a June 11 session bearing the title "AI and the American Dream: Promoting Innovation, Affordability, and American Dominance," with a Monday deadline to confirm.
Declining her invitation in a letter, Huang cited scheduling constraints, writing that he was "unable to attend" while expressing that Nvidia valued the committee's attention to the subject. His said that "American leadership in AI technologies cannot be taken for granted, but we are confident in the future and believe in the American system," and he extended a standing invitation for Warren or any committee member to visit Nvidia's Santa Clara, California campus, NBC News reported.
Warren issued a pointed public response. "NVIDIA sits at the center of some of the most important questions facing our country about artificial intelligence, economic competition, and national security," she said. "If Mr. Huang has time to attend a $1 million-a-head dinner at Mar-a-Lago and fly across the world to meet with President Xi Jinping of China, he should be able to find time to answer questions from Congress."
The hearing will proceed without Huang. The witness roster for the hearing draws from four organizations: the Information Technology Industry Council, the Hudson Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, and the AI Now Institute.
Warren's request came amid growing scrutiny of Nvidia's export compliance, including multiple Department of Justice enforcement actions alleging schemes involving the unlawful diversion of Nvidia products to China. Those cases include alleged exports of $160 million in H100 and H200 chips, millions of dollars in graphics processing units routed through Malaysia and Thailand, and $510 million in diverted servers. Warren had also pointed to a short-seller report alleging that more than 20% of Nvidia's fiscal year 2026 compute revenues remained driven by China, supported by illegal chip diversion and Southeast Asian intermediaries.
A member of President Donald Trump's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Huang has been a consistent public voice for giving American firms wider access to overseas markets, including China. He joined Trump's delegation to Beijing last month for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, where Trump said opening China for U.S. businesses would be his "first request" to Xi. The Commerce Department issued guidance last week clarifying that export licenses are required for advanced chips sold to Chinese-headquartered entities or their subsidiaries, even when those entities operate outside China.
At a market capitalization exceeding $5 trillion, Nvidia currently ranks as the most valuable company in the world.
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