A House committee wants Microsoft‘s top lawyer, Brad Smith, to attend a hearing this month on exploits of the company’s software that resulted in hackers obtaining U.S. government officials’ emails.

Politicians regularly request that technology companies send their leaders to Washington. The CEOs of Alphabet, Meta and TikTok have all answered questions from members of Congress in recent years. Microsoft, the world’s most valuable public company, sells subscriptions to email software that’s pervasive in business and government, making it an obvious target for hackers.

A proposed hearing before the House Committee on Homeland Security, at 10 a.m. ET on May 22 in Washington, would go over Microsoft’s response to China’s breach of U.S. government officials’ email accounts, which the company disclosed last summer. The attack involved accounts belonging to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, the Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., and Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China.

But Smith might not necessarily show up at the time the committee asked about in a letter it sent him on Thursday.

“We’re always committed to providing Congress with information that is important to the nation’s security, and we look forward to discussing the specifics of the best time and way to do this,” a Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC in an email on Thursday.

Last month, the Cyber Safety Review Board said in a 34-page report on the attack that “Microsoft’s customers would benefit from its CEO and board of directors directly focusing on the company’s security culture.”

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella directed employees to put security first in a memo last week. The company announced operational changes that address shortcomings that the independent federal board identified in the report.

Charlie Bell, executive vice president for security, said the Microsoft would “improve the accuracy, effectiveness, transparency, and velocity of public messaging and customer engagement” after the board expressed concern about the company not correcting an error in a corporate blog post for months.

In January, Microsoft reported another cyberattack. This time, Russian intelligence gained access to some of the company’s top executives’ email accounts.

Committee chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., and Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in their letter inviting Smith to the hearing that they were encouraged by the company’s plans to overhaul its security practices. But they said the company’s failure to stop attacks put Americans at risk.

“Given the gravity of the issues discussed above and the need for thorough examination and oversight, it is critical that you appear before the committee,” Green and Thompson wrote.

WATCH: Microsoft needs to prioritize security over feature development: Former CISA Director Chris Krebs

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation on Friday warned of intense competition in the chip industry after its first-quarter profit missed expectations.

“Competition in the industry has been increasingly fierce and the pricing for commodity products basically follows the market trends,” SMIC said on Friday during the firm’s earnings call.

“The company fulfills its [long-term view] through constructing quality technology platforms that leap here in mainland China by one to two generations,” said SMIC.

SMIC, China’s biggest contract chip manufacturer, is seen as critical to Beijing’s ambitions of cutting foreign reliance in its domestic semiconductor industry as the U.S. continues to curb China’s tech power. SMIC lags behind Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, according to analysts.

The company’s first-quarter net income plunged 68.9% from a year earlier to $71.79 million, compared with LSEG analysts’ average estimate of $80.49 million.

Gross margin slid to 13.7% in the quarter – the lowest the firm has ever recorded in nearly 12 years – according to LSEG data.

Revenue for the first quarter was $1.75 billion, up 19.7% from a year earlier, as customers stocked up on chips, SMIC said. This handily beat LSEG estimate of $1.69 billion.

“In the first quarter, the IC [integrated circuits] industry was still in the recovery stage and customer inventory gradually improved. Compared to three months ago, we have noticed that our global customers are more willing to build up inventory,” SMIC said on Friday.

Customers are building up inventory to brace for competition and respond to market demand, the firm said, adding that it was unable to fulfil a few rush orders in the first quarter as some production lines were running at near maximum capacity.

SMIC’s chips are found in automobiles, smartphones, computers, IoT technologies and others. More than 80% of its revenue in the first quarter came from customers in China, it said.

Tesla is being accused of taking steps to keep employees in Buffalo, New York, from unionizing, according to a complaint from the National Labor Relations Board.

On Tuesday, the NLRB’s regional director for Buffalo, Linda Leslie, filed the complaint. In it, she said Tesla “promulgated and maintained,” an acceptable use policy for workplace technology in 2023 that was meant to “discourage its employees from forming, joining, or assisting the Union or engaging in other concerted activities,” after allegations were raised by members of Workers United.

CNBC obtained a copy of the complaint through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The policy restricted Tesla workers from “recording, unauthorized solicitating [sic] or promoting,” and “creating channels and distribution lists,” among other things, the complaint said.

The NLRB also claims the policy had the effect of “interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of rights guaranteed” under the National Labor Relations Act, which generally protects workers’ rights to discuss organizing, join a union and collectively negotiate for better pay and working conditions.

The Tesla Buffalo plant was supposed to manufacture solar panels, but has been used more recently to assemble electric vehicle charging equipment, and to house a team of AI software data labelers.

Last month, the Buffalo plant was home to a number of job cuts put in place as part of a broader restructuring at the electric vehicle company. According to a WARN notice filed in the state, Tesla is laying off 285 employees in the state of New York, mostly at the Buffalo factory. The company is eliminating thousands of jobs worldwide after declining EV sales in the first quarter.

Tesla and CEO Elon Musk have clashed with union proponents for years and were found to have engaged in union busting. In 2021, the NLRB decided that Tesla violated labor laws when it fired a union activist, and when Musk wrote on Twitter in 2018: “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing?”

An administrative court ordered the CEO to remove the post. Tesla challenged the order but its petition for review was denied. The post in question remains on Musk’s X account, where he has 182.7 million listed followers.

Tesla has also faced workers’ rights challenges in Europe. Last year, Swedish service technicians began a strike that continues today, with the labor group allowing for some authorized work to take place at times. The employees in Sweden, where a majority of the workplace is involved in unions, are seeking a collective bargaining agreement with Tesla.

Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the complaint here: