Trump backs Nvidia's Huang as 'honorable' amid spy inquiry

Trump told reporters Sunday he had not spoken with Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang about the affair Huang acknowledged with a Chinese businesswoman suspected of spying for Beijing, and said he would 'certainly' bring him on next week's Asia trip, Axios reported.

'I just know he's a fine person, but you never know what is going on,' the president said. 'I think he's an honorable guy.' Trump added that Huang 'probably has an excuse for it,' said he hoped 'everything's fine,' and, asked whether he wished the administration had acted on earlier intelligence about the woman, replied 'no, I don't think so,' according to NBC News. The woman, Alice Huang, ran a Singapore-based company, Megaspeed, that purchased Nvidia chips.

Nvidia's board announced the same day that a committee of independent directors, working with outside counsel, would run the inquiry, adding that it had 'no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised.' Secretary of State Rubio deflected: 'I just can't comment because of the nature of it, and I also can't comment on an internal corporate matter.'

Congressional Republicans are not letting it go. On Thursday, Rep. John Moolenaar, the Michigan Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on China, wrote to Huang requesting a briefing, arguing 'it is vital that Congress determines the extent to which U.S. national security has been placed at risk.' Trump's defense lands weeks after he handed Huang the National Medal of Science in October, and days before a swing through ASEAN in Manila and an APEC meeting in Shenzhen at which Huang could now accompany him. It is the third story we have tracked on the Huang matter in two days, inside a broader run of NVIDIA coverage that has turned sharply geopolitical.