Lawmakers Probe Huawei Subsidiary With Proximity to Nvidia

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Sep 18, 2025 - 09:56 Updated: Sep 18, 2025 - 00:43
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Lawmakers Probe Huawei Subsidiary With Proximity to Nvidia

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Lawmakers with the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party have questioned Huawei subsidiary Futurewei Technologies over its expanding presence in the policy space. Concerns that the subsidiary is acting on behalf of Huawei, which is known to act to advance the agenda of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), are pertinent given that the subsidiary once held buildings in which Nvidia worked, the lawmakers said.

In a letter dated Sept. 14, committee chair Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) and ranking member Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) said public evidence shows that Futurewei acts as an arm of Huawei to continue to advance the goals of the CCP, and they demanded answers and documentation from the company.

“Amid mounting U.S. restrictions on Huawei after 2019, Futurewei aggressively expanded its footprint in policy and industry circles, positioning itself as a proxy to promote and normalize its authoritarian technology and standards in a bid to reshape global tech narratives,” the letter reads.

While Chinese technology giant Huawei was placed on the U.S. Entity List in May 2019, Futurewei is not sanctioned.

Huawei has close ties to the Chinese regime, and its founder is a vocal supporter of CCP leader Xi Jinping’s global ambitions.

In 2019, the Justice Department charged Huawei and two other subsidiaries—Huawei Device USA and Skycom Tech—with financial fraud, trade secret theft, and substantial violations of export controls. In 2020, it added charges of racketeering, alleging Huawei is a criminal enterprise. The case is ongoing, and a federal judge this July rejected Huawei’s motion to dismiss the charges.

But for years, the United States and other countries built out telecom networks with Huawei equipment. The national security determinations required rounds of funding to help localities across the country “rip and replace“ unsecured equipment like Huawei technologies, and efforts are still ongoing.

Nvidia Campus

Lawmakers questioned Futurewei over three buildings it leased within Nvidia’s Santa Clara, California, campus before Nvidia acquired those leases in 2024.

Given the espionage and intellectual property theft allegations Huawei faces, Futurewei’s “unprecedented access to America’s most advanced semiconductor and AI capabilities” demands answers, the lawmakers said.

There is evidence that Futurewei has been part of Huawei’s espionage attempts in the past, they said. A 2018 whistleblower lawsuit included details of how, after Facebook denied Huawei access to a telecommunications summit, Futurewei employees were allegedly directed to sign up using fake U.S. company names, infiltrate the meeting, and send the acquired information back to teams and executives in China.
Futurewei has since relocated to a nearby office in Silicon Valley.

Expanded Footprint

The lawmakers demanded comprehensive organizational charts that explain the relationships between Huawei and Futurewei and their personnel, as well as details of Futurewei’s activities in the United States.
They note that, in Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei’s own words, Futurewei was created as a “special case” because of U.S. sanctions. Futurewei has also submitted Foreign Agents Registration Act filings acknowledging it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Huawei.

Concerns included Futurewei’s chief scientist chairing a focus group that advanced Huawei’s controversial proposal to redesign the internet from a decentralized system to a vertical, government-controlled one, and filling positions in global technology and policy associations from which Huawei dropped out amid U.S. scrutiny.

Futurewei is a platinum member of the Internet Society and an active sponsor of Linux Foundation events.

Lawmakers say this expansion in the policy space is concerning, given Futurewei’s connection to Huawei, which openly works to support the CCP’s digital authoritarianism model and strategic objectives.

The lawmakers have previously sounded the alarm over Huawei’s HarmonyOS, an operating system built “completely free of Western code,” calling for an investigation of the system for backdoors and security vulnerabilities.

Futurewei personnel are involved with HarmonyOS through events, committees, and joint initiatives, and lawmakers questioned the company about data collection in these initiatives.

Futurewei did not respond to an inquiry from The Epoch Times by publication time.

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