Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has declined an invitation from Sen. Elizabeth Warren to testify before the Senate Banking Committee this Thursday, as lawmakers increase scrutiny of the chipmaker’s China business and its role at the center of the global AI boom.
Huang’s decision means one of the most powerful executives in AI will not appear at a hearing focused on American AI development, innovation, affordability and U.S. technological dominance.
Warren, D-Mass., had asked Huang to testify about Nvidia’s business in Chinaand its views on U.S. export controls, which govern the sale of advanced American technology abroad. Huang said he would be “unable to attend.”
The exchange underscores the growing pressure facing Nvidia in Washington as policymakers debate whether advanced AI chips should be sold more broadly around the world or more tightly restricted to keep them out of the hands of China and other U.S. rivals. The topic was at the forefront during President Donald Trump’s trip to Beijing in May to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Huang was one in a group of CEOs who accompanied Trump.
“I appreciate Mr. Huang’s response, but the American people deserve answers in a public forum,” Warren said in a statement. “NVIDIA sits at the center of some of the most important questions facing our country about artificial intelligence, economic competition, and national security.”
“If Mr. Huang has time to attend a $1 million-a-head dinner at Mar-a-Lagoand fly across the world to meet with President Xi Jinping of China, he should be able to find time to answer questions from Congress,” Warren added.
In a letter to Warren, Huang declined the invitation to the hearing, titled “AI and the American Dream: Promoting Innovation, Affordability, and American Dominance,” but said Nvidia appreciated the committee’s focus on the issue.
“NVIDIA designed, built, and delivered the first AI supercomputer to American researchers over a decade ago,” Huang wrote. “Since that time, we have been dedicated to keeping American researchers, academics, startups, and businesses at the forefront of AI-related technologies.”
“American leadership in AI technologies cannot be taken for granted, but we are confident in the future and believe in the American system,” Huang added.
Huang said he would welcome Warren or any member of the committee to Nvidia’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California, “to discuss our technology, the American AI ecosystem and how we can support U.S. leadership.”
Huang, who sits on Trump’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, has repeatedly urged U.S. officials to let American companies compete in China and other foreign markets.
“We should ensure that American companies have the best and the most and first,” Huang told reporters in December, according to The Associated Press, while adding that “we should offer the most competitive chips we can to the Chinese market.”
Warren criticized those comments at the time, saying Huang’s lobbying “could turbocharge China’s military and undercut American technological leadership.”
