emptywheel: "Trump’s Trade War and Jensen Huang’s Honey Trap"

Date

2026-11-12

Outlet

emptywheel (blog)

Author

Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel)

URL

https://emptywheel.net/2026/11/12/trumps-trade-war-and-jensen-huangs-honey-trap/

Retrieved

full · accessed 2026-11-13

File

sources/S-0066-emptywheel-trumps-trade-war-and-jensen-huangs-honey-trap.md

Referenced by (11)

• source S-0067 WSJ: Huang’s closeness with Trump did not shield him (advisers’ concerns; Sacks and Lutnick as allies)
• fact F-0053 WSJ reports administration officials’ long-ignored concerns about Huang, with Sacks and Lutnick as his allies
• fact F-0054 emptywheel argues the scandal is the third attempt to end Huang’s role brokering Trump–China relations
• fact F-0056 Culper Research publishes a short report on Nvidia’s China exposure via Southeast Asian intermediaries
• fact F-0061 Administration resumes H20 licenses under a reported 15% revenue-share arrangement
• fact F-0063 Trump allows H200 sales to China in exchange for a 25% cut to the US
• claim C-0064 WSJ: advisers quipped Huang "would sell chips directly to China’s People’s Liberation Army"; Sacks and Lutnick helped counter his critics, who were sidelined
• claim C-0065 emptywheel: the scandal is "the third" attempt to end Huang’s Trump–China broker role; "whether Jensen honey trapped Trump"
• claim C-0066 Culper Research: >20% of Nvidia’s FY2026 compute revenue came from China via diversion; Alibaba fronted money to a Singapore shell feeding Megaspeed; OBON is Megaspeed-affiliated
• theory T-0009 Washington power struggle over Huang’s access to Trump
• theory T-0010 Nvidia’s China channel: diversion as business model, espionage as distraction