Sen. Chris Coons Talks Nvidia controversy, Howard Lutnick, Dem leadership

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

Lisa Abramowicz (0:07)

Meanwhile, Nvidia, much still very much in focus, Democratic Senators Chris Coons and Elizabeth Warren, pressing the Trump administration to preserve records tied to Nvidia's advanced chip sales, following reports of Jensen Huang's extramarital affairs, including one with a suspected Chinese spy.

Writing, this incident raises significant concerns about the federal government's ability to effectively enforce our export controls and protect our national security. Democratic Senator Chris Coons joins us now for more. Senator Coons, thank you so much for being with us. I want to start with the expectation that you have going into next week with the meeting between Xi and Trump in China. Do you have any sense of how the issue around Nvidia and chips and export controls will be addressed in this meeting?

Chris Coons (0:54)

I hope it will be. Look, frankly, we are in a fierce competition with China. In many ways, they are our adversary. In other ways, they are our competitor. And in the race for AI dominance, there are four key drivers, energy, talent and chips and data. The Chinese are our peer competitor in three out of four. It is in chips and chip design and chip manufacturing that the United States has sustained an advantage. I expect that tariffs and chips will be on the table when President Trump, President Xi meet, but the fact that this was a direct intelligence action at the CEO of a four trillion dollar American global company that manufactures in Taiwan the most important, most advanced chips and that Secretary Howard Lutnick of the Commerce Department has some real questions to answer about how he continued to license these chips exports and how it was that Jensen Wong continued to fly with Trump on Air Force One and be very close to the Trump administration. That's something we in Congress have real questions about. That's something I hope Trump will fight hard for America's advantage in the world and not simply cave and hand an advantage to Xi Jinping.

Annmarie Hordern (2:08)

Has the Commerce Department Center responded to your letter, especially regarding H-200 shipments?

Chris Coons (2:14)

Not that I'm aware of. Look, Secretary Lutnick was at the very center of this. It's been his position for some time that we should be doing more to export. Look, frankly, I don't really care about Jensen Huang's personal affairs. He let his family down, he let his company down, but I would argue that it's Howard Lutnick who let America down.

If intelligence reports, credible intelligence reports were provided, that this company, Megaspeed, was receiving advanced chips through illicit channels and they didn't act on it, that's putting the American people at risk.

Annmarie Hordern (2:51)

Do you have evidence now that national security was compromised? Have you been briefed on some of this intelligence?

Chris Coons (2:57)

No, I don't have concrete evidence. That's the point of having an investigation. That's the point of asking for document retention. But it sure feels weird. It sure seems like something bad has happened. And between the $26 million that we know about in contributions from Nvidia to the Trump administration, you know, for the ballroom and the inaugural, and press accounts intimating that there was more than closeness, that this may have gone over the line into corruption, that's exactly what the American people expect us to be investigating. Look, the election last Tuesday wasn't just any average midterm. It was the most seismic shift since, frankly, Watergate. It was the biggest move in my party's direction since 1974

And I think the average American expects us to do things that will lower their costs, improve their quality of life, and address the war with Iran and tariffs. There was also a lot of concern raised about corruption and how overly cozy relationships between Donald Trump and major companies run by people like Elon Musk and Jensen Huang is hurting the opportunity that the average American should have.

Lisa Abramowicz (4:09)

Senator Coons, one thing that the Trump administration did is take stakes in about 41 different companies in the tech sector, having to do with a critical infrastructure. Intel was put on one of them. Others may be less clear.

Will the Democrats seek to offload the stakes that the government has taken in some of those companies?

Chris Coons (4:29)

Look, I dislike the idea of the US government literally taking equity interests in major companies. That's almost definitely, that's like almost the definition of socialism is to have the government own the means of production.

I understand that it may have been justified as a way to de-risk major investments in things like critical minerals investments, but those deserve a close look, both how they happened, who benefited and whether these are being managed in a way that actually lines up with the interests of the American people.