Jensen Huang agrees to testify before Congress by Thanksgiving

Jensen Huang, the former chief executive of Nvidia, has agreed to testify before Congress by Thanksgiving, according to statements made by Representative Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on November 12, 2026. The agreement was reported by TechCrunch, Bloomberg, NBC and CNN on the same day, hours after Huang resigned from Nvidia with immediate effect. The testimony is expected to take place behind closed doors and under oath, although no final date has been set and the arrangement remains tentative.

Mast said the agreement was reached on Wednesday night, hours before the resignation was announced on Thursday. The timing places the testimony within two weeks of the agreement, with Thanksgiving falling on November 26, 2026. Mast added that the appearance could take place as soon as the following week, while emphasising that the date is still being negotiated.

Committees and scope

The testimony is expected to be heard by three House committees: the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The three committees sent a joint letter on November 4, 2026, requesting Huang's appearance. The Foreign Affairs Committee is chaired by Mast, the China panel by Representative John Moolenaar, and the intelligence committee by Representative Rick Crawford.

According to the reporting, the questioning is expected to focus on two subjects. The first is Huang's reported ties to an alleged Chinese intelligence asset, identified in reporting as Alice Huang. The second is Nvidia's internal security protocols, together with the export controls that govern the sale of advanced computing hardware. The allegations concerning Alice Huang have not been substantiated in public reporting, she has not been charged, and Nvidia's board has stated that it found no evidence that information was compromised. This article refers to the matter only as alleged, in line with the available evidence.

Mast has also stated an expectation that the testimony will be video-recorded and transcribed. That expectation has not been confirmed as a settled arrangement, and it should not be read as a final term of the appearance. The under-oath character of the testimony is likewise described as expected rather than confirmed in final form.

A measured statement from the chairman

Mast addressed the agreement in remarks that acknowledged both his disagreements with Huang and the significance of Nvidia to the United States. His statement was reported verbatim in two sources:

"Jensen and I have been very at odds as some of you already know on export controls, but Nvidia is a very important company to the United States of America. I don't want to see anything hurt in Nvidia, but he has some very serious questions to answer."

The statement indicates that the committee's interest is centred on the questions Huang is expected to answer, rather than on the company itself. Mast's reference to export controls reflects a longstanding area of disagreement between the two men, and one that is directly relevant to the committees' jurisdiction over technology transfers.

Background: the resignation

The testimony agreement follows a day of rapid change at Nvidia. On November 12, 2026, Huang resigned as chief executive with immediate effect, ending a tenure at the head of the company he co-founded. Nvidia announced that Colette Kress, previously chief financial officer, had been named interim chief executive while retaining the chief financial officer role. Harvey C. Jones was named the company's first board chair.

The resignation and the testimony agreement are distinct events, and neither has been presented by the company or by the committees as a consequence of the other. The agreement to testify was reached on Wednesday night, before the resignation was announced on Thursday. No statement from Nvidia has connected the two developments, and this article draws no such connection.

Why it matters

The testimony, if it proceeds as described, places the former chief executive of the world's most prominent artificial intelligence hardware company before three congressional committees at a moment of intense scrutiny over the flow of advanced computing technology. Nvidia's graphics processing units are central to the training and deployment of large artificial intelligence models, and the company's export practices have been a recurring subject of congressional attention.

The scope of the questioning, as reported, extends beyond a single individual. The committees are expected to examine Nvidia's security protocols, which determine how the company protects its technology and information, and the export controls that limit the sale of advanced chips to certain destinations. Both subjects bear directly on United States policy toward the global semiconductor supply chain and on the competitive position of American technology companies.

The closed-door format also matters. Testimony behind closed doors allows the committees to address classified or commercially sensitive material that could not be discussed in a public hearing. At the same time, the expectation of a video recording and a transcript, if confirmed, would preserve a record of the proceedings for the committees' further work.

What is not yet known

Several elements of the arrangement remain unresolved. No final date has been set, and the agreement is described as tentative. The precise format of the testimony, including whether it will be video-recorded and transcribed, has not been confirmed as a settled term. The committees have not published a witness list, a schedule, or a detailed list of topics beyond those reported.

The allegations concerning Alice Huang also remain unproven in public reporting. She has not been charged, and Nvidia's board has stated that it found no evidence that information was compromised. Any reporting that presents the allegations as established fact would exceed the available evidence.

What happens next

The next step is the negotiation of a final date for the testimony, which Mast has indicated could fall as soon as the week of November 16, 2026. The three committees are expected to confirm the date and format once those discussions conclude. Further reporting is expected to clarify whether the testimony will be recorded and transcribed, and whether any public statement will follow the closed-door session.

The development is a genuine follow-up to two earlier stories: Huang's resignation as Nvidia chief executive on November 12, and the separate reporting that President Donald Trump had suggested Apple chief executive Tim Cook as a possible successor. The testimony agreement is a new development with its own reporting, not a restatement of either story.

Source: TechCrunch, November 12, 2026; Times Now (CNN), November 12, 2026; The Times of India (Bloomberg), November 12, 2026.