The CEO of Nvidia — the $3.92 trillion chipmaker at the center of America's AI infrastructure — resigned Thursday after revelations he carried on an affair with an alleged Chinese spy who used a Singapore-based firm to funnel advanced semiconductors to Beijing, and Washington did nothing to stop it.

Jensen Huang, 63, was photographed embracing Alice Huang, 49, an alleged operative for China's Ministry of State Security, in Taipei on June 2, 2024, according to the New York Post. The photos were taken shortly after Huang delivered his keynote at COMPUTEX 2024. Alice Huang is a former executive at Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based data center company — and that company reportedly served as the conduit through which Nvidia's advanced chips reached the Chinese government. The Post reports Huang began socializing with the alleged spy in December 2023; the affair is believed to have started in 2024.

This isn't a tabloid sex scandal. It's a national security breach. Nvidia's chips are the backbone of American AI development — the technology that will define whether this country leads or follows in the 21st century. If Beijing got its hands on that silicon through a pillow-talk pipeline, every American worker competing against Chinese AI stands in the crosshairs.

Slate reports that the scandal has triggered an open feud inside the Trump administration. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confronted Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over his failure to block Nvidia from selling to Megaspeed. Commerce is supposed to vet overseas buyers of sensitive chips. Bessent and other officials believe Lutnick stonewalled efforts to cut off Megaspeed — including before the Huang scandal broke. On Friday, Bessent went public: "Commerce has the pen, and you will have to ask them about their internal processes."

Follow the money. According to Slate, Lutnick's sons' company jettisoned millions of dollars worth of Nvidia stock as this unfolded. Congressional Republicans are now demanding Lutnick testify, and Trump is reportedly considering firing him. The New York Times has reported that Lutnick's department permitted chip sales to other suspicious firms with Chinese government ties as well.

Then there's the president himself. Slate reports that top U.S. officials told Trump about the Chinese espionage targeting Huang last year. Trump failed to stop Nvidia's sales to Megaspeed and appears not to have warned Huang. Instead, Trump reportedly urged Huang to ride out the scandal. Both parties in Washington let this happen — the bipartisan failure is the story.

Nvidia is already facing a federal class-action lawsuit in California accusing the company and Huang of violating securities laws by failing to disclose significant national security and regulatory risks, the Post reports. And the company is dangerously exposed: Nvidia carries only Side A directors-and-officers insurance, lacking the Side B and Side C coverage that most large public companies maintain. Aaron Le Marquer of Stewarts law firm told the Financial Times that Side A and Side B are "almost regarded as compulsory" for public companies, and most large U.S. firms carry Side C as well. The scandal has already wiped roughly $200 billion off Nvidia's market value.

The Post framed this as a steamy affair with canoodling photos. Slate framed it as a Trump administration mess. Both buried the core question: how much Nvidia intellectual property has already flowed to Beijing, and who in Washington is being held accountable for letting it happen?

The chips are either in Chinese hands or they aren't. The officials who looked the other way either answer for it or they don't.