US Treasury chief calls for outsider to lead embattled tech firm Nvidia

United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has called for an outsider to take the helm at Nvidia, the California-based technology giant that has faced scandal over its former chief executive, Jensen Huang.

Speaking on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures programme, Bessent said the company should look beyond its own ranks for Huang’s successor.

“This makes me think that, as the board conducts a search for a new leader, that they need to go outside the company,” Bessent told Fox News. “Just [with] what was going on inside the company, they need a dramatic shake-up.”

Bessent’s comments come three days after Huang stepped down on Thursday, following revelations of extramarital affairs, including one involving a woman US officials suspect of working for Chinese intelligence.

Nvidia plays a leading role in producing chips and other computing components for artificial intelligence (AI).

As a result, the company has been at the centre of a technology race between the US and China, with the two superpowers competing for dominance in the growing AI sector.

Huang was long a key figure at Nvidia, as one of the company’s cofounders. Since 2025, he has also cultivated a close relationship with the second administration of US President Donald Trump.

In August 2025, for instance, Huang successfully lobbied the Trump administration to loosen restrictions on the sale of H20 microchips to China, in exchange for the US government taking 15 percent of the sales.

But in late October, The New York Times revealed Huang had an extramarital relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Megaspeed, one of Nvidia’s clients.

The report cited unnamed US intelligence agents who believed Alice Huang had been recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security to help the country’s firms navigate US chip restrictions.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing has denied the allegations, calling them “entirely groundless, speculative and intended to smear and malign China”.

Alice Huang has not publicly commented on the claims. She reportedly left Megaspeed in 2025.

For his part, Jensen Huang had long maintained that wider access to US technology would help Washington preserve its edge in the global AI race.

Bessent, however, questioned whether Nvidia had turned a blind eye to potentially illicit chip sales to bolster its financial results.

In Sunday’s television appearance, Bessent suggested a 10-day deadline for the company to show its compliance with US export controls.

“I think we need answers in the next 10 days from the board and from the outside counsel,” Bessent said.

“I want to keep coming back to what was the culture at Nvidia, and were they pressing these seemingly illicit sales to goose their revenues and their earnings?”

The controversy has encouraged a bipartisan push in Congress to tighten controls on US chip exports to China.

Lawmakers, including Republican Senator Jim Banks and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, have sought to use the annual end-of-year defence bill to close loopholes that Chinese companies can exploit to obtain advanced US-designed semiconductors.

But Bessent questioned the need for new laws, telling Fox News host Larry Kudlow that Washington’s existing export controls were sufficient but needed better enforcement.

“I don’t think we need the legislation,” he said. “We have all the rules we need; we just need them enforced.”

Since Huang’s departure, rumours have swirled about who might replace him at Nvidia’s helm.

The company’s board has floated Rene Haas, the chief executive of the semiconductor firm Arm Holdings, as a possible successor to Huang, according to the Financial Times.

Haas is no stranger to Nvidia, having spent several years at the company before joining the British chip designer.

Trump, meanwhile, has named former Apple chief executive Tim Cook as a potential candidate.

In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump praised Huang’s work at Nvidia and said Cook was an ideal candidate to replace him.

“A Legend replaces a Legend,” Trump wrote.

But the Financial Times has suggested Huang may seek to return to his top-level post. In a report on Sunday, the publication said unnamed allies of his are rallying Silicon Valley executives to support his return to the company.

“Everyone that matters in tech outside the frontier labs loves Jensen,” one source told the Financial Times.

Currently, chief financial officer Colette Kress is leading Nvidia on an interim basis.