Behind Jensen Huang's Departure: A $40 million Donation from Anthropic

Beating AI News Flash: Anthropic donated $40 million to the US AI policy organization Public First Action this year. A few months later, two congressmen the organization planned to promote jointly demanded an investigation into Jensen Huang.

Anthropic donated $20 million in February and $20 million in July, respectively, to support stricter AI safety regulation and chip export controls.

On July 17, Public First Action announced a $15 million investment to promote Republican lawmakers who support strict AI regulation and to survey conservative voters' attitudes toward related policies. Among them, the two lawmakers slated to receive advertising promotion are Brian Mast and John Moolenaar.

On November 4, these two, together with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford, jointly sent a letter to Jensen Huang to accept a closed-door congressional inquiry.

On November 12, Jensen Huang resigned. The three lawmakers sent another letter that day, demanding that Nvidia and the US Department of Commerce explain the situation, and calling on Congress to pass stricter chip export restriction legislation as soon as possible.

Anthropic has long advocated restricting China's access to advanced AI chips. Jensen Huang has consistently opposed tightening export controls and has repeatedly lobbied the US government to relax restrictions on chip sales to China.