China export controls create uncertainty around Nvidia's $25 billion bond sale and future chip distribution.
Nvidia faces a critical deadline on June 18 to respond to Senator Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, regarding its compliance with U.S. export controls on advanced chips to China. The timing is significant: the company completed a $25 billion bond sale on June 15, its first since 2021, with senior unsecured notes stretching to maturities as far as 2056. Warren's inquiry, sent June 1 to Nvidia's general counsel and the chair of its audit committee, asks whether the company's board has treated export-control violations as a material risk and reviewed the company's compliance procedures in light of recent allegations.
The senator's letter points to several Department of Justice enforcement actions alleging schemes to divert Nvidia products to China. These cases reference millions of dollars in graphics chips routed through Malaysia and Thailand, exports and attempted exports of $160 million in H100 and H200 chips, and $510 million in diverted servers. Warren contrasts these allegations with CEO Jensen Huang's public assertions that there is "no evidence of any AI chip diversion" and that Nvidia's chip market share in China has "dropped to zero." The letter also cites a report by short-seller Culper Research alleging that more than 20% of Nvidia's fiscal 2026 compute revenue was still driven by China, supported by diversion and Southeast Asian intermediaries—though Culper holds a position that profits if Nvidia's shares fall.
When separately invited to testify at a June 11 hearing on artificial intelligence, Huang declined, saying he was unable to attend and offering instead to host committee members at Nvidia's headquarters, according to CNBC. Warren's staff said they were still seeking a time for him to answer questions in an open setting. The company has otherwise said little publicly about the request. Nvidia's own financial filings name export controls as a continuing threat to revenue, and its guidance assumes no Data Center compute revenue from China at all.
The bond sale itself proceeded from a position of strength: Nvidia carries top-tier credit ratings, the June notes priced at slender spreads over Treasuries, and the offering drew far more demand than the company sought. The significance of Warren's inquiry lies not in any immediate threat to the balance sheet but in the convergence of timing: at the moment Nvidia is asking debt investors to fund a multi-decade bet on AI, a senior lawmaker is pressing it on the durability and legality of part of the revenue that underwrites the bet. The written answer due today will not settle the matter, but it will show how much the company is willing to say about a question that follows its chips wherever they end up.