Nvidia Scandal Reaches Lutnick's Family: His Sons' Cantor Fitzgerald Cut Its Nvidia Stake Nearly 50% While Arranging Billions in Partner Financing

Since Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia CEO on Thursday, Nov. 12, the Nvidia spy scandal has pulled in a new set of questions: what Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's former firm was doing with Nvidia while Lutnick was being warned about Huang.

Cantor Fitzgerald, once run by Lutnick and now led by his sons Brandon and Kyle, reported a nearly 50% drop in the number of Nvidia shares it held between September 2025 and March 2026. That is the finding of a CNBC analysis of securities filings, which excludes options. Nvidia had been one of the largest stock positions in Cantor's filings.

What Cantor was doing with Nvidia

The firm did not walk away from the company. In late September, Cantor hosted Huang and other Nvidia executives for investor meetings in New York, according to a Cantor research report CNBC reviewed.

In an Oct. 3 report, Cantor analyst C.J. Muse and colleagues kept a $350 price target and an overweight rating. They wrote: "We continue to view NVDA as the best risk/reward in our coverage."

CNBC also found that Cantor has helped arrange billions of dollars in financing for Nvidia's business partners, based on its review of filings, corporate announcements and Wall Street research.

The timeline that has Washington asking questions

The reduction in Cantor's reported holdings coincided with White House and U.S. intelligence officials pressing Lutnick to crack down on Megaspeed. The Singapore-based company is suspected of funneling Nvidia's advanced AI chips to China. Axios reported Nov. 11 that Lutnick repeatedly resisted those efforts.

Axios reported on Nov. 10 that Lutnick had also received a classified intelligence warning about Huang's ties to a suspected Chinese spy. He appeared alongside Huang at a G20 technology summit in North Carolina.

Alice Huang, no relation to Jensen, was a Megaspeed executive. U.S. intelligence reportedly circulated a memo this spring alleging she was an asset of China's Ministry of State Security. Beijing has rejected the allegation. Blanche has said the Justice Department has not confirmed whether she was a spy.

Trump authorized new export restrictions on suspected chip-smuggling companies for a third time on Nov. 5, according to CNBC.

The limits of what is known

CNBC says there is no evidence that Lutnick's sons had advance knowledge of the intelligence concerns. It also says there is no evidence that the changes in Cantor's reported holdings were tied to any warnings, or that the firm's business interests influenced Lutnick's decisions.

Richard Painter, chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush and now a University of Minnesota corporate law professor, put it this way: "there's no proof of" Lutnick sharing nonpublic information with Cantor. "The appearance doesn't look great," he told CNBC. "His conversations with his sons better be about publicly available information."

CNBC's reporting leaves open whether Lutnick and Cantor have answered these questions. Lutnick did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital on the broader allegations.

Democrats promise a probe, Republicans want answers now

House Democrats are already planning for January. Rep. Ted Lieu of California, expected to chair the House Democratic Caucus, told Fox News Digital: "Howard Lutnick needs to be investigated over his role in Jensen Huang and the Chinese spy." He called it "completely unacceptable."

Rep. Ro Khanna of California, a member of the House Select Committee on China, said "we need to understand what they knew." He did not rule out examining Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "Rubio knew about the Chinese spy, and then got invited to the China trip," Khanna said.

Neither lawmaker explained how an investigation would work. Rubio did not respond to Fox's request for comment.

The pressure is not only partisan. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Lutnick "needs to answer that in front of God and country" on why he agreed to sell advanced chips. Kennedy also told CNN that Lutnick will face questions from Congress.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., wrote to Lutnick on Thursday about the December 2025 decision to let Nvidia sell H200 chips to China in exchange for a cut of the sales. They called the arrangement "an unconstitutional export tax."

The Commerce Department's Entity List, a trade blacklist, has had no additions since October 2025, the longest gap in more than a decade. Megaspeed is not on it.

The calendar

Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott has asked Huang to testify Dec. 3 and Lutnick Dec. 10. His letter to Lutnick calls the secretary's testimony "essential" to oversight of export controls.

Three House chairmen, Brian Mast, John Moolenaar and Eric Crawford, set an 8 p.m. Friday deadline for Huang to confirm in writing that he will sit for a closed-door interview on Dec. 1. Otherwise the House Foreign Affairs Committee will issue a subpoena. The same committees have asked to interview Nvidia General Counsel Tim Teter on Dec. 2.

They have also requested testimony from Commerce Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler. Democrats, who say they will take the House in January, have promised a Lutnick investigation of their own.