Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) wants Howard Lutnick to testify 'ASAP,' and he isn't being coy about why. The Indiana Republican told Fox Business Network's 'Kudlow' on Thursday that there shouldn't be any chip sales to China at all — and that the Commerce Secretary and NVIDIA lobbied against his legislation to make that the law, according to Breitbart's account of the interview.
Banks is calling for Lutnick to come before Congress and explain the Commerce Department's handling of Nvidia AI chip sales, with a growing bipartisan group of lawmakers asking why Lutnick agreed to let Nvidia sell chips to China. CBS News reported that critics are questioning whether Lutnick's ties to Chinese companies and his friendship with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang contributed to a lack of federal oversight over billions in Nvidia AI chip sales.
What Banks Said
Appearing on 'Kudlow,' Banks argued that there should be no chip sales to China and said that Lutnick and Under Secretary level officials at Commerce lobbied against his bill, per the Breitbart interview clips. He also said he believes Lutnick 'defied' a Trump directive on China and high-end chips, according to the same broadcast.
The push for testimony follows reporting from CBS News on the Commerce Department's role in policing exports of sensitive technology. Before President Trump nominated him to lead Commerce, Lutnick was chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a New York investment bank that held about $1.2 billion in Nvidia stock at the time, per CBS. Lutnick developed a warm relationship with Huang, who resigned Thursday as reports of a growing number of affairs caused new uncertainty about the chipmaker.
CBS News also reported that one of Huang's alleged relationships was with Alice Huang (no relation to Jensen Huang), who is believed by the U.S. to be a Chinese spy. She ran Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based company that became one of Nvidia's biggest AI chip customers and is suspected of illegally shipping Nvidia's most advanced AI chips to Chinese entities, circumventing a U.S. ban.
The Megaspeed Question
The Commerce Department keeps sensitive technology out of the hands of China and other adversaries in part by placing foreign companies and individuals on its Entity List, which restricts their access to U.S. technology products. In 2024, under the Biden administration, the department's Bureau of Industry and Security launched an investigation into Nvidia's chip sales to Megaspeed to determine whether they were being redirected to China. According to The New York Times, the probe was abruptly transferred to the Department of Justice, which would not comment about the investigation.
Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confronted Lutnick over the Commerce Department's failure to place Megaspeed on the Entity List, Axios reported. The New York Times reported that critics say Lutnick and his department have shielded Nvidia as concerns have grown over AI chip sales to firms like Megaspeed.
Banks' demand for Lutnick to appear soon — 'ASAP,' in his words — escalates a fight that now runs through the Senate, the Commerce Department and the Treasury. It also puts a Trump-appointed Commerce Secretary at odds with a Republican senator over the administration's own China tech policy.
The bill Banks has pushed would bar sales of chips to China outright. It is not yet known when Lutnick might agree to testify or whether the Commerce Department will respond to Banks' call. What is known is the lobbying claim: Banks said on Fox Business that Lutnick and NVIDIA worked against the legislation.
Our Take
Here's the question every patriot should be asking: why is an American cabinet secretary and the world's biggest AI chipmaker fighting a bill that would keep advanced American technology out of the hands of the Chinese Communist Party?
Banks is right. We shouldn't be selling any chips to China — not the high-end ones, not the 'export-compliant' ones, not any of them. Every advanced chip that leaves this country for China is a chip that could end up in a Chinese military system, a Chinese surveillance network, or a Chinese AI model trained to beat us. The CCP doesn't buy American technology to be our friend. They buy it to bury us.
And the timeline here should trouble every American. Lutnick ran an investment bank holding $1.2 billion in Nvidia stock before he took the Commerce job. He had a warm relationship with Jensen Huang. Megaspeed — a company suspected of illegally shipping Nvidia's most advanced chips to Chinese entities — became one of Nvidia's biggest customers, and Commerce still hadn't put it on the Entity List. Treasury Secretary Bessent had to confront Lutnick about it. That's not a conspiracy theory. That's the reporting.
The Senate deserves answers, and Lutnick should give them under oath, on the record, ASAP — exactly as Banks demands. If the Commerce Department shielded Nvidia while the CCP got its hands on the most sensitive AI chips on earth, the American people need to know who ordered it and why.
President Trump ran on putting America first and standing up to China. Selling our crown jewels to the CCP is the opposite of that. Banks is doing what a senator is supposed to do. Now the rest of the GOP should back him — and Lutnick should start clearing his calendar.
