Bessent urges Nvidia to hire an outside CEO and scrutinize other executives

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants Nvidia’s leadership reset to extend beyond Jensen Huang’s departure. In a November 15 Fox News interview, he urged the board to choose an outside CEO and questioned whether executives had pursued suspected illicit chip sales to increase revenue and earnings, CNBC reported.

A resignation, then pressure on Commerce

Huang resigned on Thursday, November 12, following revelations about his relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed. Nvidia appointed Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress interim CEO.

According to CNBC, U.S. intelligence officials suspect Alice Huang of spying for China. Megaspeed is suspected of diverting Nvidia chips to China in violation of U.S. export controls. Those suspicions are not established findings that Nvidia executives knowingly participated in illegal sales.

On Friday, Bessent told CNBC’s Squawk Box that several federal agencies had supported adding Megaspeed to the government’s export blacklist for months. He placed responsibility for the lack of action with the Commerce Department, led by Secretary Howard Lutnick: “But Commerce has the pen,” he said.

CNBC cited Axios reporting that Bessent confronted Lutnick in the White House Situation Room over Commerce’s failure to act against Megaspeed. Commerce denied that the confrontation took place.

Bessent’s demand for a shakeup

On Sunday, Bessent called for a “dramatic shakeup” and suggested other executives should face scrutiny over export-control compliance. He compared the intervention he favored with the response to a noncompliant bank, invoking the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC.

Singapore revenue enters the argument

Bessent also challenged Nvidia’s financial disclosures, pointing to a surge in reported Singapore revenue while China sales declined.

Nvidia stopped separately reporting Singapore revenue in November 2025. It said a new methodology, using customers’ headquarters rather than their billing addresses, better reflected the geographic distribution of sales.

Bessent’s intervention was a demand for leadership changes and scrutiny, not an announcement of new government enforcement action. Nvidia is scheduled to report quarterly earnings on November 17—its first earnings report since Huang’s departure—with Kress serving as interim chief executive.