New York (AFP) – Nvidia chief Jensen Huang sits at the center of the artificial intelligence boom, and the spy scandal that erupted over the weekend threatens to shake the company at a time when confidence in the AI investment frenzy is already fragile. Taiwan-born Huang is regarded as the godfather of the AI economy, the executive every player in the industry must turn to because the technology depends on the graphics processing units (GPUs) that his company designs. Those chips have made Nvidia one of the two most valuable companies in the world, alongside Apple.
GPUs are in short supply, and the most powerful tech executives and companies rely on Huang to keep them flowing to the data centers that run the models behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. Huang has also plowed Nvidia’s windfall into AI startups and labs that spend the money on his chips, a circular arrangement that could spread any trouble at Nvidia across the industry. “Nvidia without Jensen — I don’t know what that’s worth,” Stephen Witt, author of a book on Huang and Nvidia, told CNBC. “Nvidia is Jensen Huang.”
The scandal over Huang’s affair with an alleged Chinese spy lands days before Anthropic’s expected IPO, a Wall Street offering seen as a key test for an industry under pressure as investors show more caution in the AI story. That wariness was fueled by last week’s US elections, in which voters showed anger at AI, tech billionaires, and the data centers that house Nvidia’s chips.
Silicon Valley figures rallied to Huang’s defense. Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, wrote on X that Huang “did something incredibly dumb” that “was bad for America,” but said he believed there had been no bad intention and that Huang was “irreplaceable for America’s AI leadership.” “I simply do not believe he would ever knowingly do anything to disadvantage either America or Nvidia,” said investor Gavin Baker, who has known Huang for almost 30 years.
Other investors were less confident Huang would survive the probe launched by the Nvidia board. “I doubt Jensen Huang will be able to remain as Nvidia CEO,” wrote Gary Black of the Future Fund, which counts Nvidia among its largest holdings, adding that Huang had “no natural successor within the company.” “Boards are risk-averse institutions comprised of individuals who worry obsessively about being sued,” he said. Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives & Co called it “a black eye moment” for Huang and said the Nvidia chief was “the core DNA of Nvidia.” “Jensen is not replaceable,” Ives said, adding he expected Huang to remain CEO in the near term but that the board’s findings could still lead to his removal.
Huang’s fate will likely be determined in Washington. Ives said the scandal would spark multiple congressional inquiries and increase scrutiny of chip sales to China, a sensitive issue as the AI race between the United States and China accelerates. Huang had persuaded the Trump administration to ease restrictions on chip sales to China and, after donating to some White House causes, became a close adviser to President Donald Trump. But Democrats won control of Congress in last week’s elections, and China hawks from both parties are expected to ask why Trump did not act when he was first told of Huang’s ties to the Chinese businesswoman now suspected of spying for Beijing.
Bill Bishop, author of the Sinocism newsletter on China, said Huang’s role in deciding who gets Nvidia’s scarce chips made him a valuable target. “With the new Congress, expect subpoenas and public hearings in which he is trashed and he and Nvidia are further damaged,” Bishop wrote. The scandal was “a win” for China’s Ministry of State Security, and Huang will now pay the consequences, he concluded.
© 2024 AFP
