Official portrait of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, 2025. Credit: Daniel Torok / U.S. Department of Commerce, official portrait, 2025, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain). This file is a crop of the official portrait. No further crop, resize, or format conversion after download.
Who Is Howard Lutnick? Commerce Secretary in Nvidia Probe
Updated November 14, 2026 (ET).
Photo: Daniel Torok / U.S. Department of Commerce, official portrait, 2025, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain; this file is a crop of the official portrait).
Howard Lutnick, the U.S. secretary of commerce and the former chairman and chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald, has agreed to appear voluntarily before the Senate Banking Committee after the panel’s chairman, Sen. Tim Scott, asked him to testify about reports involving Nvidia and the Commerce Department’s role in export controls.
Scott sent letters on November 12 to Lutnick and to Jensen Huang, who had resigned that day as Nvidia’s chief executive, NBC News reported. The letter asked Lutnick to appear at a public hearing on December 10 “regarding recent public reports about Nvidia and the Department of Commerce’s role that raises national security concerns.” Kristen Eichamer, a Commerce Department spokesperson, said, “Secretary Lutnick has proactively agreed to appear voluntarily before the Banking Committee to address their questions.” CBS News, citing a U.S. official, reported on November 13 that Lutnick had agreed to testify on December 10. ABC News, also reporting that day, said it was not yet clear when he would appear.
Lawmakers are examining the department’s oversight of Nvidia chip exports and whether a Singapore-based company, Megaspeed International, should have been added sooner to the Entity List, a designation that would have restricted its access to advanced chips. CNBC reported that Huang has acknowledged an affair with an executive at Megaspeed, which, the network said, has bought more than $4.8 billion of advanced Nvidia AI chips over the past two years. ABC News reported that U.S. intelligence has indicated Megaspeed may have been diverting purchased Nvidia chips to China, which the company denies. On November 13, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that “Treasury, War, [the U.S. Trade Representative] and State, they were in favor of putting Megaspeed on the Entity List for months, but Commerce has the pen,” CBS News reported.
Howard Lutnick: Quick facts
Full name: Howard William Lutnick, according to the Miller Center.
Born: July 14, 1961, on Long Island, New York, according to the Miller Center. He was raised in Jericho, New York.
Known for: The 41st U.S. secretary of commerce; the former chairman and chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm that lost 658 New York employees in the September 11 attacks, including his brother.
Education: A bachelor’s degree in economics from Haverford College, in 1983, according to the Miller Center.
Latest news: After Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott asked him to testify on December 10 about reports involving Nvidia and Commerce’s export-control role, a department spokesperson said he has agreed to appear voluntarily.
What was Howard Lutnick’s career before Commerce, and how did he get the job?
Lutnick joined Cantor Fitzgerald in 1983, according to his Commerce Department biography. The Commerce biography says he became president and chief executive “at just 29 years old.” The Miller Center dates that appointment to 1991 and says he became chairman in 1996. The official biography says that before he entered public service he was, at the same time, chairman and chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald and of BGC Group, and executive chairman of Newmark.
On September 11, 2001, Cantor Fitzgerald’s New York offices were in the World Trade Center. The firm lost 658 of its 960 New York-based employees, including Lutnick’s brother, the Commerce biography says. Lutnick launched the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, which, the department says, donated $180 million to families of his coworkers who died that day. The official biography also says he has donated more than $100 million to victims of terrorism, natural disasters, and other emergencies, and that he served on the boards of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum and Weill Cornell Medicine.
In 2024, he was co-chair of the Trump-Vance transition team, the Commerce biography says. President-elect Donald Trump nominated him as commerce secretary on November 19, 2024, according to the Miller Center. The Senate confirmed him by a 51–45 vote, and he was sworn in on February 21, 2025, according to the Miller Center. He is the 41st secretary of commerce.
This page describes the request that he testify and his agreement to appear voluntarily. It does not treat the underlying allegations about chip diversions, or any finding about Commerce’s process, as established facts.
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Frequently asked questions about Howard Lutnick
Who is Howard Lutnick?
He is the 41st U.S. secretary of commerce, confirmed in February 2025. Before that he was chairman and chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm he led through the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, when it lost 658 New York employees, including his brother.
Why is Howard Lutnick being asked to testify?
Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott asked him to appear at a public hearing about reports involving Nvidia and the Commerce Department’s role in export controls, NBC News reported. Lawmakers have also raised questions about whether the department delayed adding Megaspeed International, a Singapore-based Nvidia customer, to the Entity List.
Has Howard Lutnick agreed to testify, and when?
A Commerce Department spokesperson said on November 12 that he has agreed to appear voluntarily. Scott’s letter asked him to testify on December 10. CBS News, citing a U.S. official, reported that he had agreed to testify on that date; ABC News, reporting the same day, said it was not yet clear when he would appear.
What did Howard Lutnick do after September 11?
According to the Commerce Department biography, he rebuilt Cantor Fitzgerald and launched the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, which donated $180 million to families of coworkers killed in the attacks. The same biography says the firm lost 658 of its 960 New York-based employees, including his brother.
Further reading
CNBC: Lutnick agrees to testify amid Nvidia scandal (November 13, 2026)
NBC News: Lutnick agrees to testify as bipartisan pressure grows (November 12, 2026)
CBS News: Lutnick agrees to testify as Bessent blames Commerce over Megaspeed (November 13, 2026)
ABC News: House and Senate Republicans call on Lutnick and Huang to testify (November 13, 2026)
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