Lutnick faces questions over Nvidia spy scandal. His sons’ firm has deep ties to the chipmaker
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is under scrutiny following reports that his former firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, significantly reduced its Nvidia holdings while he resisted pressure to crack down on companies suspected of smuggling the chipmaker's AI technology to China.
In late September, Cantor Fitzgerald hosted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and other top executives from the chipmaker for investor meetings in New York, according to a Cantor research report reviewed by CNBC. The Wall Street firm maintained an overweight rating on the stock with a $350 price target, even as it was reducing its exposure to the company.
Between September 2025 and March 2026, Cantor reported a nearly 50% decline in the number of Nvidia shares it held, from over 3.5 million to just 1.78 million, according to a CNBC analysis of securities filings. This reduction coincided with mounting pressure on Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to crack down on Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company suspected of funneling Nvidia's advanced AI chips to China.
His conversations with his sons better be about publicly available information.
Intelligence warnings and business ties
By the time Cantor hosted Huang in New York, Lutnick had received a classified intelligence warning about Huang's ties to a suspected Chinese spy, according to Axios. Despite these concerns, Cantor continued doing business across Nvidia's AI empire, helping arrange billions in financing for the chipmaker's business partners.
As scrutiny of Huang intensified following his resignation, Cantor Chairman Brandon Lutnick publicly praised the chipmaker's leadership. "Nvidia is one of the great companies on the planet, and they have an amazing leadership team," Brandon Lutnick told Fox Business on Wednesday.
Administration divisions
President Trump maintains "complete confidence" in Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a White House official told Reuters on Thursday. However, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed divisions within the administration, stating that the Departments of Treasury, Defense and State and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative all "were in favor of putting Megaspeed on the entity list for months."
Bessent pointed to Commerce as the department responsible for imposing the entity list, adding, "You will have to ask them about their internal processes." The Trump administration had authorized new export restrictions on companies suspected of smuggling Nvidia chips to China for a third time on Nov. 5.
Financial dealings
Cantor's reported Nvidia holdings remained near the reduced level through June 30, at 1.81 million shares. Most of those shares were attributed to CF Secured, a Cantor brokerage subsidiary that uses stocks and derivatives to hedge customer transactions. The firm also disclosed substantial Nvidia options positions, overwhelmingly skewed toward put options.
As concerns about Huang escalated in May, Cantor was helping finance the expansion of one of Nvidia's newest business partners, securities filings show. On May 7, Nvidia and Australia-based cloud computing provider IREN announced a five-year, $3.4 billion partnership. Five days later, Cantor was one of seven bookrunners on IREN's $3 billion convertible bond offering.
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