Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is facing increased questions regarding the relationship between his former firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, and Nvidia. The scrutiny follows reports that Lutnick resisted efforts by White House and intelligence officials to restrict a Singapore-based company suspected of funneling advanced Nvidia chips to China. This debate has intensified after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned on Thursday.
Cantor Fitzgerald, now led by Lutnick's sons Brandon and Kyle, hosted Nvidia executives for investor meetings in New York in late September. Following these meetings, analysts maintained an overweight rating on the stock with a $350 price target. However, securities filings show that Cantor reduced its reported Nvidia share count by nearly 50% between September 2025 and March 2026. This decline occurred while Lutnick was receiving classified intelligence warnings about Huang's ties to a suspected Chinese spy.
Despite reducing its direct stock holdings, Cantor continued to engage with Nvidia's broader ecosystem. The firm helped arrange billions of dollars in financing for Nvidia partners. For example, Cantor served as a bookrunner for a $3 billion convertible bond offering for IREN, an Australian cloud computing provider that signed a major partnership with Nvidia in May 2025. Cantor also advised Lancium on a $600 million financing deal for a data center project in Texas, which is part of the Stargate infrastructure initiative.
Richard Painter, a former White House ethics lawyer, noted that while there is no proof Lutnick shared nonpublic information with his sons, the appearance may not be ideal. He stated that the secretary's conversations with his family should ideally focus on publicly available information. Cantor spokespersons explained that the firm's positions were often immaterial proprietary holdings or client swap transactions, which are common in institutional markets.
Tensions within the administration have also become public. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated on Friday that the Treasury, Defense, and State departments had supported adding Megaspeed to the entity list for months. He suggested that questions about internal processes should be directed to the Commerce Department, which is responsible for managing the entity list. President Donald Trump has maintained complete confidence in Lutnick, according to a White House official.
The firm's reported Nvidia holdings had grown in value during the summer of 2025 as the administration moved to ease restrictions on chip sales to China. By the end of 2024, Cantor held more than 3.5 million Nvidia shares worth $479 million. By March 2026, that number had fallen to 1.78 million shares, with a value of $310 million. The company's next quarterly filing is due on Monday, which may provide further clarity on its current exposure.
Democratic senators have called for an ethics investigation into whether the Lutnick family benefited from the secretary's push to expand AI data centers. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons recently demanded that Lutnick and other officials preserve records related to Nvidia's chip exports and intelligence warnings. Coons argued on CNBC that the administration failed to act prudently by licensing advanced chip exports to China while ignoring the black market.
Cantor has not publicly explained the decline in its reported Nvidia share count or its specific earnings from deals with IREN and Lancium. The firm also has ties to the chip supply chain, with reports suggesting bankers at the firm informally advised executives at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, though Cantor has disputed some of these accounts. The next quarterly filing due Monday will be closely watched for additional details on the firm's positions.
