Lawmakers demand answers in Nvidia spy case

See me in my office: US lawmakers want Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to brief them behind closed doors on 18 November about an alleged Chinese spy who he acknowledged having an affair with, CNBC reports.

The vibe shift: The demand comes as newly empowered Democrats are already looking to roll back the Trump administration’s laissez-faire relations with Nvidia and other big AI companies — a Washington vibe shift that could have serious implications for Gulf nations that are building AI empires with Nvidia and other US tech firms.

At the very least, the scandal is sure to reignite concerns about top-shelf US AI chips leaking to China. The alleged spy, Alice Huang, is affiliated with an Nvidia customer, Megaspeed, that’s accused of helping pass Nvidia chips to restricted Chinese companies. Anxiety about chips leaking to China is one of the key reasons Biden-era government officials argued against allowing top-shelf chips to be sold to the UAE and Saudi Arabia — a position reversed in the second Trump administration.

Huang initially denied having a romantic relationship with Alice Huang, before acknowledging in a Sunday note to staff that he had been “unfaithful to my wife.” The company’s board is investigating national security concerns related to the revelation, but said that it has “confidence in Jensen,” who analysts say has no obvious successor at the company.

Who, me? China denies any spy plot, calling the claims “smears,” The Washington Post reports.

MEANWHILE- Not guilty: The Saudi engineer accused of hiding a listening device in an OpenAI meeting room pleaded not guilty on Friday, CNBC reports. Abdulrahman Alfozan faces one charge of secretly recording conversations. He’ll be back in court on 17 November.

AND- From hacker to partner: OpenAI is teaming up with Hacktron, a security firm that first got its attention by breaking into OpenAI’s systems — with the company’s permission. Hacktron found and reported flaws through OpenAI’s bug bounty program. Now, the two will hunt for weak spots together, OpenAI said on Friday.

SOUND SMART- What’s a bug bounty? In a bug bounty program, companies pay outside hackers cash rewards for finding and reporting security holes in their tech, so the holes can be patched before criminals or other adversaries find them. OpenAI raised its rewards last week to give researchers “more reason” to hunt for flaws.