Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang presents the RTX Spark GPU during his keynote address at the annual Computex trade show in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 1. [Reuters]
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang presents the RTX Spark GPU during his keynote address at the annual Computex trade show in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 1. [Reuters]

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has declined a request to testify at a US Senate hearing on artificial intelligence, countering with an offer to host the lawmakers at the company's Silicon Valley headquarters instead.

According to CNBC, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, had sought Huang's testimony at a Senate Banking Committee hearing scheduled for Wednesday on the theme "AI and the American Dream: Advancing Innovation, Affordability and American Dominance." Huang declined, saying he was unable to attend.

Warren, known as a fierce critic of big business, has repeatedly targeted Amazon, Google and Meta on antitrust and national security grounds and holds one of Congress's most hawkish positions on technology exports to China.

The hearing is widely seen as designed to press Nvidia on how its AI chips may be reaching China through indirect export channels and to push for tighter export restrictions. Warren pushed back sharply at Huang's refusal. "You have time to attend a $1 million-per-person dinner at Mar-a-Lago and fly to China to meet with President Xi Jinping, but you can't respond to congressional questions?" she said.

Huang thanked lawmakers for their interest even as he turned down the invitation, and proposed that members of the Banking Committee visit Nvidia's headquarters in Santa Clara, California, in lieu of the hearing.

In a letter to Warren, Huang said Nvidia "designed, built and delivered the first AI supercomputer to American researchers 10 years ago" and had since been "committed to ensuring that American researchers, academia, startups and enterprises remain at the frontier of AI technology."

Huang has long argued that US companies should be free to compete in China and other overseas markets. In December, he said American firms should be able to supply their most competitive chips to the Chinese market.

Huang, who serves on President Donald Trump's science and technology advisory council, has maintained close ties with the Trump administration, including accompanying Trump on his visit to Beijing last month.

Huang wrapped up a four-night, five-day visit to South Korea from Thursday through Monday, during which he held dinners with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin. He also signed a next-generation memory chip technology cooperation agreement with SK Hynix and visited Seoul National University, where he attended an AI agent design competition as part of a broader push to deepen industry-academic ties.


yckim6452@heraldcorp.com