Key facts
- CBS News reported that Cantor Fitzgerald held about $1.2 billion in Nvidia stock when Lutnick was its chairman and CEO.
- The Commerce Department has not added a company to its Entity List since October 2025, CBS News reported.
- Chris McGuire of the Council on Foreign Relations said the real issue is the lack of enforcement of export controls.
- Senator Elizabeth Warren urged Lutnick and Jeffrey Kessler to act to keep advanced technology from fueling China's military.
- The Commerce Department did not respond to a request for comment, CBS News reported.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is facing criticism over the Commerce Department's enforcement of export controls on advanced AI chips, according to reports by CBS News and NBC News on November 13, 2026. Critics have questioned whether Lutnick's ties to Nvidia and its former CEO Jensen Huang contributed to a lack of oversight over billions of dollars in Nvidia AI chip sales.
Before becoming commerce secretary, Lutnick was chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, which held about $1.2 billion in Nvidia stock at the time, CBS News reported. Huang resigned as Nvidia's CEO on Thursday, November 12, 2026, after reports of affairs caused uncertainty about the chipmaker, according to CBS News.
CBS News reported that one of Huang's alleged relationships was with Alice Huang, who is believed by the U.S. to be a Chinese spy and who ran Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based company suspected of illegally shipping Nvidia chips to Chinese entities. In 2024, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security opened an investigation into Nvidia's chip sales to Megaspeed, but the probe was transferred to the Justice Department, which declined to comment, CBS News reported.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blamed the Commerce Department for failing to keep advanced AI chips out of China's reach, NBC News reported on Friday, November 13, 2026. Senator Elizabeth Warren called on Lutnick and his deputy Jeffrey Kessler to explain why they had not closed export control loopholes, according to CBS News. The Commerce Department did not respond to a request for comment, CBS News reported.