Nvidia is one of the most critical strategic assets in the USA today, underpinning economic dominance and national defence. Leadership at this level usually operates under an implicit shield. Normal procedure would be to cover-up. A sudden loss of Nvidia's founder and CEO at this juncture is a blow to American strategic posture and a windfall to China.<p>I think the real story is not the affair, which was already reported in asian media in 2024, but what specific catalyst broke that protective shield and made continued containment untenable.
2 affairs - one with a sub-ordinate and one is a foreign agent who got chip flow through to a sanctioned country.<p>Do we even know thats the end of this? This is only whats public at this point... It doesn't feel like the end of it but more like beginning to middle.<p>I'm trying to figure out who pushed this story through or if this is just bubbling up naturally.
Seems like this happened just after the US midterm elections, maybe there's something there?
Your last sentence lacks clarity for me
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A "windfall to China?" Jensen Huang seems to have been conspiring with Alice Huang to illegally sell high-end NVIDIA chips to China. <i>That's</i> a windfall to China.
let me get this straight :<p>standing on its' head your statement reads as :<p>"If the US doesn't allow government intervention into the business dealing of important private entities during times of scandal, to protect lies and initiate cover-ups, then China will win."<p>do I interpret that correctly?
I am simply observing that at this level affairs are usually covered-up for the interest of the nation. This affair <i>was</i> covered-up for a bit, seeing as it was broadcast on Taiwan news in 2024, so something else changed for them to end the cover-up and broadcast the affair to America.
Gates, Bezos, and now Huang ? Let's see, whose left ? Zuck ? I'm sure there are plenty of skeleton's hiding in his closet ...
llm slop
Which affair?
If this had happened at a more recent founder-led tech company, the board would have far less practical independence<p>Dual-class share structures have become the defacto standard for founder led companies, giving founders disproportionate (even majority) voting power.<p>Someone like Zuckerberg effectively controls the board and would be extraordinarily difficult to oust against his wishes (absent some exceptional legal intervention or a decision to step aside)
I think even if NVIDIA were founded recently, it still wouldn't have such a share structure. The companies that do have dual class shares are software companies that can grow significantly without raising a ton of capital. NVIDIA being a hardware company, that is a lot harder to do even today.
Crazy we even allow non-voting shares and multiple tiers of shares.
It has worked out very well for my portfolio for 20 years now.
i'm actually pretty okay with non-voting shares, it's super voting that are the issue
Not really. We allow for a lot of ownership conditions.
The theory is that if an investor is under no compulsion to purchase shares that entitle them to no say in governance, so if they do so, they only have themselves to blame.<p>So much for theory!
America has always been a land of inequality..<p>Remember all men are created equal.. except in reality they werent, just ask the Blacks, natives, Chinese and all the others.<p>Even today how many average Americans can call the President and have a chat even once ?
Even among dual-class IPOs (which are the minority), only 18% of them have CEO control. [1]<p>That figure raises to about half if you include all officers/directors.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/Lowry%20-%20Bucking%20the%20Trend.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/Lowry%20-%20Buck...</a>
And that’s precisely the sort of arrangement we should ban.<p>Humans need someone to be accountable to, even if it’s just some guy walking behind you saying “memento mori” twice a day.
This is kinda huge; my layperson view is that Jensen has been responsible for their long term technology strategy, which requires deep understanding of so much outside of the business domain. I'm not exactly thrilled that they are "eating the world" (hf purchase had me bent out of shape, for example), but they've undeniably executed on some long term complex shit. Who could take his place?
> <i>Who could take his place?</i><p>One of the greatest failures of Nvidia's Board was in failing to push for a successor. (Musks' companies face a similar risk.)
Nvidia had 3 cofounders. Jensen was one. The second cofounder still works there.
With Nvidia, Do we know this or is there just not a public face?<p>SpaceX has Shotwell to cushion the blow. Tesla will obviously crash into the cellar the moment he OD's or gets thrown in jail for pedo shit.
What about his cousin? I think she would be a perfect fit
Yeah but how much is just nvidia happened to be in the right business for the AI boom<p>It’s not like Jensen predicted it
He may not have predicted the specifics, but they didn't just happen to be there. Nvidia started work on CUDA in 2004, and aggressively iterated machine learning hardware and software for twenty years to get into the position they had for the boom.
Well AMD and Intel were too, and they've not delivered remotely close to the same performance as NVIDIA.<p>Ok AMD had some financial woes, but it also has made a lot of less optimal technical and business decisions that were entirely unforced errors.
China will pay him more.
> Who could take his place?<p>Tim Nvidia.<p>He's great on logistics, has experience replacing a cult of personality CEO and knows how to placate Trump with glass trophies.
Large companies always have a backup plan in case the CEO needs to be replaced. What usually happens in these cases is that a new CEO will be named. That new CEO will focus on maximizing the company's earnings while neglecting the tech. And the company will be an earnings winner for the next few years.<p>He's out as CEO but he'll continue to be a force at Nvidia. If the new CEO is smart, he'll keep him in the company, but it will be hard since Huang will be seen as the company's leader and it will be very hard for Huang to act any other way.
Large traditional companies.<p>Recent trend is quite the opposite. What's Tesla without Musk selling pipe dreams ? Pretty sure there is 0 plan for replacement.
would you want that CEO job?... founder behind the scenes driving the show.
They need to fire him outright. The company needs to set the example that misconduct won’t be tolerated at any level. Keeping him on in anything but a transition capacity would be a mistake.
Most people couldn’t care less about him having affairs. Sex is part of life, and affairs are pretty common.<p>The bigger issue is the conflict of interest stuff, but until that’s proven this is a horrible look for NVIDIA if they actually go through with it.
> <i>bigger issue is the conflict of interest stuff</i><p>The no-going-back issue is the corruption. Jensen corruptly quashed an investigation into Megaspeed. He then quite clearly expected Republicans in Congress to back him, which is why he only came clean when forced to.
I agree the corruption and conflict of interest stuff is the real issue here and is serious. I’m just criticising the hand-wringing over him banging some random woman (or women, as it apparently turns out), as if that is some unprecedented or shocking behaviour or worthy of a reprimand on its own. Most of the world left that prudish shit behind in the ‘90s.
I think marital infidelity is shitty behaviour but I also think the main issue here is that <i>this man</i> in <i>this job</i> with <i>this global significance</i> thought <i>this woman</i> was safe to be involved with.<p>His board must think he's a lunatic. They have every right to know if he's having an affair with <i>anyone</i> (because marital infidelity is a personal corruption issue that is rarely <i>not</i> a problem when it's a CEO, since carrying off an affair usually involves suborning staff in some way). But this? Madness.
> <i>the hand-wringing over him banging some random woman</i><p>I don't care about it. But I do understand folks who are dismayed to see someone who many of us–myself included–saw as a bit of a paragon until a few weeks ago turning out to be a total shithead.
> saw as a bit of a paragon<p>He was never a paragon.<p><a href="https://mustsharenews.com/jensen-huang-signs-woman-chest/" rel="nofollow">https://mustsharenews.com/jensen-huang-signs-woman-chest/</a>
Not a paragon but definitely a very capable entrepreneur.<p>I'm disappointed in him as a business person, not in a some moralistic sense but because he's clearly very smart and capable yet made himself vulnerable with these two dumb mistakes. In his position there are a lot of external interests who want leverage or control over you.
I’ll give you a shortcut for the future, and I will be downvoted for doing so.<p>Don’t look to billionaires if you’re looking for paragons. They all fail basic ethical checks. It’s very easy and convenient to not look for these failures. But, inevitably, when somebody starts looking hard, they find them.
I don’t think it’s necessarily <i>prudish</i>, but in order to accurately judge it you need to know if someone’s ENM or not, and that’s more than most people make known about their personal lives.<p>Stepping outside of your marriage behind your spouse’s back is still scummy behavior.
"some random woman" who happen to be a) a foreign spy and b) a direct report. You absolute moron.
AFAICT, (b.) isn't correct? The alleged spy works for a Singaporean company called "Megaspeed"[1], and while there is a conflict of interest argument, perhaps, "direct report" seems incorrect.<p>[1]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jensen_Huang_spying_scandal" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jensen_Huang_spying_scandal</a>
There are reportedly two women. One is Alice Huang, who you mention, the other is Nvidia's VP of health care: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/11/technology/jensen-huang-nvidia-affair.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/11/technology/jensen-huang-n...</a>
you didn't even bother <i>trying</i> to read the article...
"random women"<p>one was a direct report, one was a spy
This sounds too reasonable.<p>Considering the current administration and the amount of corruption by trump and co, I feel like not following the rules is too simplistic an explanation for being targeted like this.
Not familiar with the details, I asked the ai overlords to gather up public evidence and give me a summary and... this feels like a very premature accusation. Unless you know something that isn't public, seems like we need to wait and see.
There are now two allegations: that he had sex with a Chinese spy and that he had sex with a direct report.<p>The second one will get you fired just about anywhere.
Man what are you on about? Most CEOs are gone the moment affairs (especially those within the company) come to light.
Your common or garden affair? Not a big deal.<p>Affair of a CEO with a direct report and member of senior leadership? Kind of a big deal<p>Affair with a Chinese intelligence agent? Quite a big deal
As people said about the Huggingface incident: if you see one ant in your kitchen, the best estimate for the total number of ants actually present is well above one.<p>One affair was a mistake. Two, with a spy and an employee, are a real failure of responsibility -- and those are just the ones we know about.
Frankly, has he broken any law?<p>I don’t understand you Americans; you live in a disproportionately violent society, tolerate all sort of abuse and manipulation, then will scream hysterically at anyone having an unconventional sex life.
Engaging in a relationship of any sort with a direct report (the second woman he reportedly had an affair with) is typically prohibited behavior. The imbalance of power between a boss and a subordinate in their report line just screams sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen.<p>It's nothing to do with prudishness about his sex life and everything to do with his actions endangering the company.
Enabling billions of dollars of export-restricted chips to be shipped to China is probably more of an issue than the affairs, legally speaking.
Huang doesn't decide national policy. Were the chips shipped legally?
And someone using their influence to have the DOJ squash the investigation into the matter that Commerce was running? Not a good look.
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The accusal is that he has broken US federal securities and export control laws. There also may be some light treason.
Reducing this to “an unconventional sex life” is a weird and sort of stupid take when matters of global trade and export sanctions policy are concerned, but sure, we’re all a bunch of violent prudes over here.<p>Give me a fucking break.
Would be pretty difficult for him to have any influence if he ends up in a cell
Related: Jensen Huang Said to Have Had Relationship with Nvidia Executive <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50459321">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50459321</a>
I want a straw poll from people that actually own NVDA. Or at least can honestly adjust to a mental frame of "I am an NVDA shareholder".<p>Should the board replace him or not?<p>It's easy to judge when you have no skin in the game. What would you think if you did?<p>Any Nvidia employees out there?
This doesn’t bode well for Anthropic’s IPO indirectly, due to whole AI industry being propped up largely by Nvidia’s circular investment.
Also there’s likely a big overlap of institutional investors who are both NVDA and ANT investors and will now likely seek to dump ANT at the opening bell.
Part of me wonders if recent problems with AI (Huang leaks, OpenAI models hacking Huggingface), haven't been arranged by OpenAI in order to poison Anthropic's IPO.
<i>> due to whole AI industry being propped up largely by Nvidia’s circular investment.</i><p>This premise is most likely incorrect: <a href="https://www.exponentialview.co/p/the-state-of-the-ai-economy" rel="nofollow">https://www.exponentialview.co/p/the-state-of-the-ai-economy</a><p>If anything this should impact the IPO only to the extent it affects the production of new compute capacity, because it is clear that is the #1 thing they need to scale revenues.
This might rather save the IPO. Banned open source models will allow the closed source players to maintain power and recoup a larger part of their investment by driving up the prices.
Short term, days or weeks, there will be panic. But the impact of the change won't really be felt for years to come. For the next few years, the company will be fine.
Is that why tech bros are circling the wagons? <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/11/technology/jensen-huang-affair-nvidia-support.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/11/technology/jensen-huang-a...</a>
FALSE.<p>The coup of Jensen Huang was precisely organized by the same large institutional investors.<p>They want NVIDIA to lock-up firmware and prevent any open-weight models from being run. Everyone (at least in US/NATO/US-aligned world) will be forced to use Anthriopic/OpenAI or some other US based closed source model.<p>Open models will be banned at the GPU level.<p>This is done to cement the multi-trillion dollar valuation of the AI labs and prevent AI bubble from popping due to customers using free open-weight, instead of pay-per-token closed models
These days US has nowhere near enough soft power to do something like that.
Agreed. And it would damage Nvidia if they went along with this.
fall of nvidia is acceptable collateral damage, they are just hardware vendor. all their chips are made by TSMC anyways. And they can be replaced by OpenAI's inhouse chips or googles TPUs, made in the same TSMC factories.<p>no biggie if their valuation will deflate a bit just like Cisco did in 2000.<p>pure-software business like openai/ant, will be protected and their global market will be protected
They can't even stop one company from selling physical chips to China, yet somehow they're going to prevent anybody from running open models? I don't know, it doesn't seem likely to me.
>Open models will be banned at the GPU level.<p>Is this actually technically possible?
I don't see how this can happen, though. There are <i>a lot</i> of GPUs out there and open models have already been downloaded millions of times. (IIRC Deepseek v4.1 Flash has been downloaded nearly 2M times just on HuggingFace, just over the past month.) The NATO world already relies quite heavily on open models, in many cases served by Mistral and other local providers. China is also developing its own hardware -- Huawei isn't slacking -- and it's not <i>that</i> far behind. And I'd bet there's no such thing as a "GPU Level" block that can't be hacked away.<p>Such a move would also be transparently dystopian... though, in fairness, I suppose that makes it more plausible than it would otherwise be...
they will use National Security as a pretense to force everyone on "verified-aligned AI".<p>if Uncle Sam has not approved your model, it will be illegal to run it as a AI risk.<p>Americans have swallowed even worse limitations on their freedoms, so nobody will even notice that, because all notices will be sent to hyperscalers, neoclouds, and other large operators of GPU farms
lol
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Can someone make the strong case for why he should be ousted?<p>I’m not deep into this story, but my initial reaction is that marital infidelity doesn’t seem like a strong reason to oust him, aside from him possibly being compromised by an international spy. Haven’t other successful leaders continued to lead after having their affairs exposed?<p>(And no, I don’t believe what he did is morally excusable for the record.)
Your aside is the primary issue and he may have worked with a CCP agent to bypass federal export controls.
So let me get this straight, there is now a grand conspiracy within nvidia and its supply chain network to avoid export controls? How exactly would that work? "Hey its Jensen, can you call John in shipping and send 16 containers of H200s through Myanamar to China?"
These are some good points! Thanks for the replies.
Evading export controls and lying about it is a pretty bad look
> aside from him possibly being compromised by an international spy<p>That's a pretty big "aside" for a very big company like NVIDIA.<p>> Haven’t other successful leaders continued to lead after having their affairs exposed?<p><a href="https://andybyron.wiki/" rel="nofollow">https://andybyron.wiki/</a> is one half of the erstwhile internet-meme "Coldplay Cam Couple".
It's come out that he was having another affair with a Nvidia employee as well, their vice president of healthcare. Having an affair with a client is one thing but having one with a client and a subordinate is maybe enough for the board to remove him.
The part where the mistress is a corporate cutout for Alibaba and head of a company making multi billion dollar deals with Nvidia, I imagine.
> him possibly being compromised by an international spy<p>you answered your own question.
he was sleeping with a chinese spy
Is there any reason why this will actually change the fundamentals of Nvidia's business so long as 5080s go for as much as a used car and the entire world wants H200s? Even if they lose an extremely hands-on CEO, they're selling a very expensive product with extremely high global demand.
I wonder what happens to NVDA afterwards. People say Jensen is NVDA or at least he has a lot of controls over the company. I guess they finally found the right time (very bad midterm) and the right opportunity (mistress as Chinese spy).<p>I even wonder whether some elements within the Chinese government has a hand in it -- not (only) the mistress part but the ousting part.
There's probably a lot more to this than we'll ever know.
I think it's worth even considering that if the allegations are true that the objective was to get Huang fired. Sure, he sold China chips, but they have their own homegrown chips now and the Chinese government have played a direct part in that.
I'm thinking the people behind trying to oust him are people who don't appreciate him likely knowingly violating export sanctions and putting the rest of the company and himself at risk of massive fines and criminal prosecution
There is no “they” in this. My read is the timing of all of this entirely down to the results of the midterm elections.<p>Over the next two years, Congress is going to haul in every tech CEO who licked Trump’s boots. I think Jensen tried to get in front of it and now journalists and institutional short sellers are digging up the dirt.
Given that<p>1/ China is still interested in chips<p>2/ Chip exports to China will now (presumably) be under even more scrutiny<p>What would their motivation be to leak this info?
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Jensen made Nvidia. He named it, he built it from nothing with 2 other founders.<p>Ousting him is pretty much the worst case scenario for the company.
NVDA down almost 8% in after-hours trading.<p><a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NVDA/" rel="nofollow">https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NVDA/</a>
Without knowing more this seems like the wrong move... The U.S. has the AI supply chain visualized incorrectly. The necessary manufacturing, raw materials and components all come from outside of the U.S. For nVidia to have decades of supplier relationships and manufacturing understanding, much of this was in the hands of the CEO more than other companies. Jensen has a lot of direct reports which is odd given the corporate structure.<p>I do wonder if Megaspeed and other shell companies have been monitored for over a year by the Feds where they broke export rules, failed to report to the Govt with the knowledge of several in the Administration... Everyone was making money on the side by allowing Jensen, Megaspeed and others profit off of bypassing export controls. Just recently a shipment of GPUs randomly disappeared as well.<p>If this all turns out to be true then removing him is a lot stronger than it seems and maybe in the long run fixing the bus factor problem will have been a good change.<p>Or, since nVidia is the central bank of the AI bubble, forcing him out kicks off a chain reaction that pops the bubble.
Did he break any law?<p>Did he circumvent export restrictions?<p>If not, replacing him would be a mistake for Nvidia. I also fear that it would endanger open weight models in America.
If Nvidia is going to fire Jensen Huang, my question is whether Jensen will be allowed to start another "Nvidia".<p>I hope he's allowed to do so. He now knows how not to get trapped into a tactically targeted honeypot, he knows the ins and outs of a GPU fab business plus he has all the connections.<p>This minus all the cruft and legacy overhead of a company as old as Nvidia. I'm now <i>hoping</i> he gets fired.
Why would Jensen without Nvidia be a better bet than Nvidia without Jensen?
Why does it need to be? Why not both? What if both produces a net positive, as competition is usually a good thing?
> Why would Jensen without Nvidia be a better bet<p>Because he can start a new company knowing everything that he got wrong the first time around, be able to hire absolute badass engineers who got fired from Nvidia because some Manager or HR thought they smelled wrong and was a hygiene risk, or quit Nvidia because they didn't like the work they were being assigned, be able to raise capital from investors who currently won't invest in Nvidia because of reasons, be able to strike new deals that hasn't happened because someone at Nvidia isn't letting them happen.<p>Nvidia is a very old company, not as old as Intel but close. Old companies build their own internal overhead you just cannot get rid of that would just kill a new company
Thought they smelled wrong? Am I missing a reference to something?
That's not how the world works. Most of what NVIDIA does is protected by patents and trade secrets, not to mention CUDA.<p>And what do you mean by "the things he did wrong the first time"? NVIDIA was the most valuable company in the world at one point either this year or last year, and it's still in the top three. He did everything right from business perspective.
It's just a shower. It won't harm you.
idk reading everything what is coming out it looks like he had much unlimited power to do whatever he wanted. so i dont buy that someone (even legal) was a hurdle for him.
What are you talking about? Do you understand how companies work?
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It's not just the Chinese spy. NYT:<p>> Jensen Huang... also had an extramarital relationship with an executive who reports to him, according to five people who worked at the company.
> he knows the ins and outs of a GPU fab business plus he has all the connections.<p>Building an Nvidia competitor would be a long, hard slog that almost certainly ends in failure for anyone including Jensen Huang.<p>They (NVIDIA) have tens of thousands of patents on their technology that would be hard to build around <i>and</i> commitments that lock up 60-70% of TSMC's CoWoS capacity.
He will have a non compete agreement for a while. May be 1 year or more.
What do you mean "allowed"?
> <i>whether Jensen will be allowed to start another Nvidia</i><p>Sure. After he's done responding to the Congress and various investigators and his family, something I suspect will occupy a good part of his next decade.
> He now knows how not to get trapped into a tactically targeted honeypot…<p>Does he? Plenty of serial cheaters out there getting caught repeatedly.
If I am Lip-bu at Intel, I’d wire Huang after news cycle cools.
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He's still a shareholder. It is considered <i>extremely</i> bad form to start a company that competes with a company that you are still a shareholder of unless you have not been fired with cause. The only other example I can think of is Jobs. So it is possible but I would assume that post Jobs contracts were put together in such a way that it would be very hard to compete with the company you got booted out of and that you are still a shareholder of. I've signed a couple of contracts over the years just as shareholders and those already mentioned that if I had competing interests the deal would be null and void and I'd be liable, and for good reasons too.
He could pretty trivially divest or move his shares into a blind trust or something. This isn't rocket science, and furthermore it's not as bad form as you might think. It happens all the time with little repurcissions.
Why couldn't he just sell his shares then buy unencumbered fresh shares straight on the stock market? Lose <1% of spread...
Fired with cause or stepping down (most likely stepping down)>Interim CEO named> Jensen flew too close to sun and got burned. Board investigations will put everything on Jensen and they will turn that chapter over. Much more information will come out. His wife I will divorce him as well. This whole thing is more political than anything else. Who leaked all of this is my biggest question. Nvidia should be fine in the mid term, but unstable in the short term.
It will be a huge mistake for Nvidia
This is overblown; nvda is a mature company jensen has set the right bets forward so it's just a matter in who the successor is. In terms of revenue impact, assuming megaspeed accounted for ~20% of sales (rumored estimate) then game optimal move is to have OAI/ANT pick those sales up. We will hear about a transition plan probably around earnings.
He would absolutely be fired if he were in any role, but as CEO cofounder, it's hard not to attribute Nvidia's success to his leadership.<p>The thing is, this is just what's been reported. There's almost certainly more going on if 2 affairs are public disclosure. If there is a sexual harassment angle here as well, he's toast.
I take no joy in noting that <i>personality-driven</i> companies are notably at the mercy of the vagaries of the <i>key-man</i> in the key-man risk clause... :-/<p>That's a tautology, of course. And the board should have been doing its job handling the key man in question<p>It's most obvious in hindsight, obviously. Across the history of such governance debacles.
I still recall, as a young engineer (1999) working in a high-flying startup outside of Boston -- bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and full of naive optimism -- I flew to Houston in late '99 to demo a fabulous optical networking switch to ENRON, all the while thinking why in the world would ENRON want to be in the business of networking. Ended up selling them a TON of very expensive equipment.<p>It all unwound a few months later, much to my chagrin (and my lost stock options, obviously).<p>Recall that most bubbles do not pop due to one, key material cause. Instead, they pop due to adjacent troubles that, in turn, lead to cascading effects.<p>That was true of:<p>- LTCM failure (1998; Thailand and other SE Asian countries defaulted);<p>- 2000 market crash (dot-coms crash, then telecom crash of 2001);<p>- 2008-2010 financial crisis (mortgage backed securities);
... and so many others before these.<p>It's entirely possible that NVDA, despite earning $$$$, could unwind the circular funding within the ecosystem (the very crux of telecom market crash of 2001)
So what happens if this actually goes through? Everyone switches their hardware spend to which other providers?<p>TPUs and AWS's Trainium seem to be at least in the ballpark of being competitive but does that matter at all?
So his girlfriend's a spy.<p>Did he know she was a spy?<p>Did he give her any secrets?<p>Did he break up with her after finding out she's a spy?<p>Was she trained as a spy and sent to entrap him specifically? Or did she form a relationship with him, then get told by the Chinese Communist Party "Xi wants you to steal him some secrets from your boyfriend. This is an offer you can't refuse; spy for us or your family in China will be beaten, jailed or worse"?<p>Is he a victim or an asset? Is she a willing patriotic spy for China, or a victim of blackmail from the Chinese Communist Party? Has she been arrested as a spy, or did she make it to the Chinese embassy before the story broke?<p>My feeling is he shouldn't be ousted if he took the honey but didn't fall for the trap. OTOH if he passed her company secrets, that's presumably a fireable offense for anyone lower on the totem pole; it's only fair for a CEO to get fired for the same.
China wins again
The Guoanbu ( Guojia Anquan Bu (国家安全部) China's spy agency ) is subtle.<p>Honeytrap.<p>Reveal the information to a trusted journalist.<p>Destroy Huang's credibility.<p>Force his resignation.<p>Damage Nvidia.<p>China moves further in the AI game.<p>Game set and match.
Sounds like this might have been China's real goal.
What is the endgame of this completely cumbersome and obvious CIA journalist and intelligence community rollout of this narrative surrounding Jensen and Nvidia? Why would they nuke the credibility of America's only AI chip company and hand the future of AI to China? Do they actually think this will gain them control over AI?<p><a href="https://x.com/ChinaSelect/status/2120253050845593723" rel="nofollow">https://x.com/ChinaSelect/status/2120253050845593723</a>
I think their concern is that NVidia is acquiescent and in support of policies which give China better AI chips, which is the core of the matter regarding the honeypot scandal. The goal, if it is an op, is to get a CEO who will comply more readily with export controls.
They are finding ways to tighten chip export to China, which is the biggest threat to OpenAI/Anthropic atm.
Let’s steelman instead of strawman. The CIA likely cares little about Ant and OpenAI.<p>What they care about is the US leading China on every militarily and economically relevant technology.<p>The hawks have long chafed at Huang’s position that we need to sell our best chips to China to keep them on the US tech stack. It’s very obviously giving them the ability to catch up.
I thought I was supposed to believe that OpenAI & Anthropic's methods are so much more advanced than any potential capabilities of Chinese competitors that OpenAI & Anthropic must each be trillion dollar companies.<p>If I ignore the words, and instead observe behaviour, all of the actions I observe indicate the opposite;potential competitors are treated as very credible threats, even existential ones; and actions indicate that 'maintaining special access to hardware' and 'vying for regulatory capture to shut out competition' are major strategic goals.
Americans voted for rooting out corruption. The Congressional committees that review stuff like corruptly quashing an investigation into your lover company [1] are changing hands. Jensen coming clean right after the election was, within the range of options he had, smart.<p>(Folks run to blow whistles when they realize they're involved in something they may pay the price for isn't new.<p>Also, have you <i>seen</i> our IC? The days of the CIA running a competent conspiracy, if they ever existed, are behind us.)<p>[1] <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/09/business/economy/nvidia-megaspeed-investigation-huang.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/09/business/economy/nvidia-m...</a>
If the anti-corruption revolution is going to focus on some dude's sex life rather than the extensive and obvious whoring of political office, I want none of it.
"some dude's sex life"<p>She could have been his chess partner, and if he'd acted the same way on her behalf it would have been fireable. The sex is immaterial and anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't read up on this or is selling something.<p>The sex is just the icing on top of the poor judgement.
> <i>some dude's sex life</i><p>When some dude's sex life quashes an investigation into Megaspeed, yeah, it becomes germane. (There are serious questions around Lutnick, for example [1].)<p>[1] <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/11/11/answer-in-front-of-god-and-country-gop-turns-on-lutnick-over-chips-01161625" rel="nofollow">https://www.politico.com/news/2026/11/11/answer-in-front-of-...</a>
This looks like a major indictment of Lutnick, not Huang.<p>I don't get it. Huang doesn't get to decide who chips can't be sold to. Presumably Huang wants to sell chips to <i>everyone</i> whether or not he's fucking them. Nvidia will always say yes to another billion dollars. It's up to the state department to say no.<p>If Lutnick was sleeping with a Chinese spy and approved the sale, sure throw him in jail. If Huang secretly bribed Lutnick to approve the sale, sure throw them both in jail. But that's not what we're seeing?<p>What am I missing? Seriously, ELI5.
> <i>that's not what we're seeing?</i><p>You’re absolutely correct that we have no smoking gun in the public record. What we have, instead, is smoke. Lots of it.<p>> <i>What am I missing?</i><p>"Investigators at the Commerce Department were deep into a monthslong investigation of a Singaporean company that they suspected of smuggling Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips into China when their work came to a sudden halt late last year.<p>The investigation centered on Megaspeed, a data center company led by an executive who U.S. officials now believe to be a Chinese spy who had a relationship with Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang.<p>But the case was abruptly transferred to the Justice Department last year. The shift came after Commerce Department investigators working on the case received an email from Nvidia’s general counsel seeking information about the inquiry into Megaspeed.<p>It is not necessarily unusual for Commerce Department agents working on a case to speak with a company’s representatives about issues involving their firm. But what was unusual was the content of the message. Tim Teter, Nvidia’s general counsel, said that Jeff Kessler, a top official at the department, had given Nvidia permission to reach out about the case.<p>The agents were alarmed that Nvidia had invoked the name of Mr. Kessler, their superior, who was nominated to his role by President Trump. Some viewed Mr. Kessler’s interaction with Nvidia as violating government procedure and potentially tainting the case, according to current and former government officials and others familiar with the incident” [1].<p>[1] <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/09/business/economy/nvidia-megaspeed-investigation-huang.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/09/business/economy/nvidia-m...</a>
Thanks. I have my popcorn in hand but... so far it looks mostly terrible for the commerce department. Huang? I don't know.<p>Maybe the board knows more, and that's why they are "preparing to oust" him. Or maybe it's about the sex scandal.<p>I don't have money in NVDA but if I did I would certainly want him to stay at his desk until we have the actual gun.
> <i>so far it looks mostly terrible for the commerce department. Huang? I don't know</i><p>He caused Nvidia to violate export-control law. To help a Chinese intelligence asset’s company. He then corruptly quashed the investigation using Nvidia’s resources. Those are crimes.<p>> <i>I don't have money in NVDA but if I did I would certainly want him to stay at his desk</i><p>I do have money in Nvidia. I want Huang gone. If he stays, there is a real chance the hammer about to fall on him destroys Nvidia as well.<p>That’s before the shareholder and supplier lawsuits extract billions from the company. Before states’ AGs extract more. Before the Congress lobs a grenade at a Silicon Valley that honestly doesn’t seem to get why this behaviour is contemptible.
When the "some dude" is Jensen Huang and involves sleeping with Chinese spies while advocating for relaxed export controls, then obviously it's gonna pay him some attention.
The guy advocates for relaxed export controls because it makes him stupid amounts of money, at the cost of our national security.<p>That's why Huang doesn't get to decide whether chips should be sold to China. He can advocate all he wants, speech is cheap.
> Americans voted for rooting out corruption.<p>Wasn’t the swap drained in 2016 too?
Those of us foolish enough to vote Trump in 2016 weren't convinced he was going to leave the swamp drained, rather that it was so bad he couldn't do worse. A lesser of two evils kind of choice.<p>Within weeks I saw the naked racism and left the whole party behind. Having learned more about Trump and Republicans since has been ... humiliating after decades of voting 'R'.
Thanks for the honesty and humility. These types of perspectives are wonderful to read.<p>Wherever you land on your views in the future, being willing to question everything is a superpower.<p>Onward!
Trying to engage in good faith here. What did you see in the first few weeks after your 2016 vote that were materially different from how he ran his 2016 campaign (and I mean the hits - "they're sending rapists, ...", "grab her by the pussy", ...)?<p>I can imagine people souring over lack of follow through on economic promises, or the naked corruption with your $coins, but from a racism/xenophobia/morals perspective, I'd feel like most of the signal was there in the 2016 campaign was it not?
For me personally it was trying to ban travel from whole countries based on race. Morally I didn't expect him to personally be a paragon of virtue. My hope was that the vile parts of his retoric were mostly campaign bluster and "locker room talk", and that he'd defer to experts once in office.<p>The mask-off racism was just beyond the pale, and lead me to look deeper into his past and how he was starting to govern. It became obvious that he'd mostly cheated or lucked his way into fortune and fame.
> <i>from a racism/xenophobia/morals perspective</i><p>A larger fraction of Americans voted for a supported Trump because he seemed to credibly criticize the Iraq War and promised no new fuckups in that category.
> The days of the CIA running a competent conspiracy, if they ever existed, are long behind us.<p>Now that's something I'd like everyone to believe, if I was the CIA.
Reputedly it’s Marco Rubio who has been the main leaker. Think about what his motivations may be and the timing and you’ll have an answer.
What is up with people who seem to love corruption?<p>Huang had an affair with a Chinese spy, as well as an affair with someone he manages. Either one of these would be grounds for dismissal at any company I've worked at. Committing both of these offenses shows appalling judgment by Huang.<p>Firing him seems like a very logical conclusion, not some CIA Illuminati bullshit conspiracy theory.
More like: whats up with people being utterly fucking stupid and devoid of even the bare minimum of critical thinking skills. Being pro (or at least unbothered by) corruption is just one of the ways that manifests.
Money talks. Shareholders didn't seem to mind when Tim Cook gave Trump a golden trophy. They certainly didn't mind Jensen Huang's dialog with Trump when sanctions were ill-defined. It seems like cronyism is in, and all the cool kids are doing it.<p>This scandal has felt like a litmus test for free market idealists vs realpolitik thinkers. Nvidia's board and Trump both knew about the spying allegations for over a year, allegedly. This is not a situation you can navigate with strong principles or a moral compass, you just have to follow the money.
Reminds me of the meme that WorldCom went down because their CEO bravely stood up to NSA pressure. Instead of, you know, running an elaborate shell game of financial fraud to enrich executives and dupe shareholders after the Dot Com bubble burst.
> What is up with people who seem to love corruption?<p>Paraphrasing the apocryphal quote:<p><i>Anti-corruption never took root in America because the commoners see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed future CEOs.</i>
And worse yet, he seemed to be influence by her to violate export restrictions and was probably responsible to a substantial "donation" to the presidential "ballroom fund" to change squash an investigation into the matter.<p>This is up there with the most fireable things that have ever happened.
They’re just reporting on things that are true and have been kept secret inappropriately. That’s not a “narrative”.<p>You’re looking for a conspiracy when this is a pretty straightforward story. Jensen’s credibility is shot. Of course they’re preparing contingency plans.
"America's only AI chip company"<p>Nvidia has a large market share, but AMD, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, OpenAI, Qualcomm all produce AI chips... these are all American companies.
And let’s not forget Apple, which makes Apple Silicon chips and makes the Mac Mini and the Mac Studio, which are very popular devices for local LLMs.
+Broadcom (as much as it pains me to say)
Given the massive amount of chips funneled through to CN, I guess it leaves regular ol' corporate governance no other option.
If they didn't want to hand the future of AI to China, maybe Nvidia shouldn't have had a Chinese CEO? (By which I mean this wasn’t their objective)
NYT and WSJ doing the bidding. Unleash the Oppenheimer protocol. It’s an epic footgun. History repeats itself.
The possible security implications of this entire affair (affairs now) can't be overstated. That hardware's in the most secret of facilities, computing very classified workloads for very very serious customers. Not the goofy AI heads, I'm talking about the military and intelligence communities in many nations.<p>Hopefully this teaches the market to migrate away from proprietary CUDA and NVIDIA and their proprietary drivers.
Some of these main narratives just don't add up. If the end goal was to get chips, why is China blocking those H200s and it's stuck on port.<p>There's a different angle here worth listening to:
<a href="https://youtu.be/IC3Kh40dEQY" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/IC3Kh40dEQY</a>
Is there a archive.ph link? This article is paywalled.
Huh I wonder if the true goal of the spy was to disrupt Nvidia by getting him fired, slowing them down, not stealing secrets.
The only issue is finding replacement, Only 5 days to earnings.
What about Chris Malachowsky? He also would be a co-founder CEO
For the time being the CFO or COO would do. But stock will take a hit.
Is there one? Obviously lots of MBAs out there but anyone who can really fill his shoes?
1. Replace Jensen as the President in the board with Tim Cook.<p>2. Ian Buck as CEO (Inventor of CUDA, PhD, vice president of hyperscale and high-performance computing).<p>Right replacement could jump the stock 20%, mediocre replacement can drop it 20% from the current lows.
Isn’t Jensen super vocal about having dozens of direct reports? Because that would prevent any of them from appearing as a natural successor.
It's interesting how some of the smartest people can still make some of the dumbest mistakes. So my optimistic feeling: we're all similarly enough capable of smart and dumb things. But my pessimistic feeling: our intelligence isn't fundamentally better than LLMs in avoiding dumbest mistakes
Who wanted him dead? This is the question that is still open.
Where was it reported that someone wanted him dead?
It'll be to do with his encouragement of open models.<p>Training must not be allowed by normal people. The resulting models may work stuff out that they're not supposed to and that would be bad and wrong.
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Honestly, I hope this doesn’t play out in a rushed way. Evaluating this is the board’s top duty. It’s critical, and healthy, for them to weigh what’s best for all NVDA stakeholders.<p>Obviously, the affairs are a very serious issue, but the investigation needs to determine whether there were any security conflict of interest breaches<p>Let’s be clear: any abuse of power involving related-party relationships is wrong. Jensen should not get a “free pass” just because he’s Jensen. This is very serious.<p>Jensen’s leadership of the broader company is unparalleled, and replacing him would be nearly impossible. That step should only be taken when it’s extremely clear there is no other option. Even if the board does replace him, that brings significant risk, not just to NVIDIA but to all the other businesses connected to it. I hope a warning shot across the bow is enough for him to clean things up so everyone can get back to focusing on the work.<p>As for which way the board rules, the details are all that matter. When boards react emotionally, before a thorough investigation and before they have the full picture, they make bad decisions. They shouldn’t rush. They should investigate and dig into every detail.<p>Then make a decision. These decisions will carry enormous weight.<p>None of us really know the details. NVIDIA board: do your job and take it very seriously. Deliberately measure three times, cut once. Don’t spectate. The public likes/wants Hollywood drama, but what we really need is good corporate governance.
They had dirt on him for many years. Someone wants him ousted. That’s what’s happening behind the scene. Jensen probably pissed off someone very well-connected.
> <i>the investigation needs to determine whether there were any security conflict of interest breaches</i><p>The Board–correctly–fears for themselves personally in a case involving Jensen's public and multinational corruption scheme.
hopefully the "fear" whats the best long interest of stockholders.
Add in that the democratic party wants to look tough on tech and here you have a clear case of the CEO selling known banned exports to a Chinese spy while personally fueling the data center hysteria.<p>This is going to be easy political win. Jensen's only saving grace is that he is in bed with Trump so he won't be sitting behind in prison cell.
> Obviously, the affairs are a very serious issue,<p>It’s just sex mate, it’s really not a big deal unless he giving favourable deals to his mistress’s company.
"Investigators at the Commerce Department were deep into a monthslong investigation of a Singaporean company that they suspected of smuggling Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips into China when their work came to a sudden halt late last year.<p>The investigation centered on Megaspeed, a data center company led by an executive who U.S. officials now believe to be a Chinese spy who had a relationship with Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang.<p>But the case was abruptly transferred to the Justice Department last year. The shift came after Commerce Department investigators working on the case received an email from Nvidia’s general counsel seeking information about the inquiry into Megaspeed" [1].<p>[1] <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/09/business/economy/nvidia-megaspeed-investigation-huang.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/09/business/economy/nvidia-m...</a>
Affairs could be a whole lot more than that. For example, assuming he didn’t want his wife finding out he’s an ideal blackmail target for anyone that does know.
it could be just a hookup. But its his life. His family. Its trust. And like others said, it can get way deeper and more complex. We just don't know.
Who do you think Alice Huang is, mate? People had questions about NVidia's deal with Megaspeed since day 1.
He’s not gonna end up leaving. This is rubbish.
Finally some sanity. He should have resigned.
Should have sold at 220 ugh<p>But there's no real competitors still? Even for the medium term?
I had 10 shares at 30 I sold at 40. Now I'm all bogleheads though.
> But there's no real competitors still? Even for the medium term?<p>So AMD, Google are not "real" competitors?
.
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What did board of tesla said when Elon asked some random girl on Internet to have a baby for him?
From the NYT Story:<p>> During the conference, Nvidia executives were at a nearby hotel for meetings. Mr. Huang and Ms. Powell were seen being affectionate at the hotel. One bystander captured the interaction on their phone, three people briefed on the incident said.<p>> Mr. Huang’s security witnessed the bystander with their phone and sequestered them, the people said. They made the person an offer to sign a nondisclosure agreement.<p>Well, at least there will be one way to make money after AI takes my job...<p>Jokes aside, I would expect we will soon learn there is more. Given that Nvidia was vouching for Megaspeed while exporting those chips, I still think there's a reasonable chance Jensen ends up in jail over this. Not large, but possible.
Ok but if you are having an affair with your direct report why would you "be affectionate" <i>in public</i> ?<p>When I encountered this ( in much smaller, non strategic companies!) both parties took great care to hide their affair and appear completely professional in public. The fun and games were kept behind closed bedroom doors. I don't get it.
The longer you get away with it, the safer it starts to feel, so they take more risks.<p>Some folks get a thrill from getting caught, too.
I’m very curious what the going rate for such an offer is.
The fact that they had a process for this is telling.
See Succession, after a certain net worth this is common practice, family bodyguards and lawyers train for such cases, however absurd.
Mr. President a second Jensen affair has hit the tower
This is certainly fast after the NYT article on his second affair. I suspect this was in the works after the original affair + export scandal.
Board is likely looking ahead to Democrats taking office and investigating the spy relationship and lack of action taken by the government.<p>Sen. Chris Coons says investigating Nvidia's CEO is top priority for Democratic Congress<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/11/09/nx-s1-6032682/senator-chris-coons-congress-investigation-nvidia-national-security" rel="nofollow">https://www.npr.org/2026/11/09/nx-s1-6032682/senator-chris-c...</a>
I'm wondering how people like Musk, Zuckerberg, Altman, etc. just continually get away with it. Are they just more sociopathic and cover their tracks better?<p>I'm not really making a judgement on Huang, but it seems others have done worse. It's making me wonder if there's something larger at play where people (i.e., other billionaires and CEOs and perhaps politicians) are unhappy with Huang.
Zuckerberg and Musk can't be fired. They own controlling share.
I suppose that's one reason. But Musk has formed basically pyramid schemes to keep his debtors from calling and to move his debt out from under him. Without that, he likely would have to sell shares to cover the debt of his Twitter purchase.
They could lose control through a substantial shareholder lawsuit. A minority shareholder suit against Musk could prove tremendous damages repaid in stock and the judge might not let the special classes of shares with extra voting power protect his control.<p>It would have to be a very good cause though, disliking him or ordinary bad business decisions won't cut it.
Get away with what exactly?
Musk, Zuckerberg, and Altman and their companies have zero history of sketchy stuff that would, in a normal world, lead to CEOs being ousted? Affairs are enough to do it to Huang? The whole Chinese spy thing is not confirmed is it? And the three people I've listed have had documented cases of endangering national security through either their actions or their company's actions.
<i>"Okay, when I introduce you, I'm gonna say, 'This is a friend of mine.' That means you're a connected guy. Now if I were to say, this is a friend of ours—that would mean you're a made guy. Capiche?"</i>
Get away with what? I haven’t heard anything about Musk, Zuck or Altman falling straight into a honeypot from an unallied nation
So Jensen also had an affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, who is also married.<p>Looks like both Nvidia GPUs and Nvidia CEO have Single Instruction Multiple Threads (SIMT) architecture.
Good riddance. All these csuite people think they are so uniquely capable but if he gets kicked out nothing will change except we'll, hopefully, hear less about jackets at tech presentations.<p>Also to all the people saying how terrible this will be, would you really want someone running your company who can't keep his word to his wife? Maybe it is a quaint idea in 2026 but I think people who break their word shouldn't be trusted, particularly to be in positions of power.
Note to self: if a hot chick ever shows interest in me and I'm not that attractive then be on my guard.
My armchair analysis is that going forward with this will most likely make the AI bubble pop.<p>Depending on how Jensen takes it, this could be the catalyst to steer AI in a new direction. Companies will line up to scoop him up, if not fight each other to get him. He is the head of the most valuable company, he has the tightest connection to the US government, it won't take a minute before Mudita* becomes a new company being fast-tracked to the top.<p>* Opposite of Envy (nvidia)
Macro: Is this political subterfuge to distract us from other things like criminal government officials? Spiteful payback for losing the mid-terms?
This is the most American thing ever
It's insulting, even as a non-American; the idea that we're all stupid enough to believe that oh, well, yes <i>of course</i> we should fire this brilliant tech leader because he slept with some attractive person (who may or may not have been planted for exactly this kind of bullshit "leverage"); that just logically follows, doesn't it?
People don't seem to understand what the actual issue is. Nvidia seem to have circumvented export controls to at least one of his mistresses companies, who had more stock purchased than could physically fit in their dataceblnter. Nvidia didn't ask or ignored what was happening to make sure their profit earnings were still growing, defrauding investors. The salacious part is minor.
I get that for the (possible?) Chinese spy lady, but this new one?<p>If the Chinese spy lady really were a spy, all the govt agencies would have known about it long ago, but chosen not to reveal it. The whole business stinks of manipulation and "don't interrupt your enemy while they're making a mistake", and the salacious headlines are what's selling this Manufactured Consent.
Regarding the new person it's more the normal conflicts of interest with personal relationships with management that are in the code of conduct to prevent exactly that kind of relationship.<p>Regarding the original person, whatever conspiracy may or may not have occured doesn't resolve the original problem.
It's easy to blame a person like dumb Jensen who slept with the Chinese spy.<p>I don't see anyone accusing China of setting up such a trap. China always denies ofc, though all these scummy things eventaully comes out to be true, and by then everyone forgets.
I hope it was worth it.
Hard to imagine this happening. Curious if he will pull off a coup like Sam Altman.
It's Joever
Interesting that the thing that might pop the AI stock bubble isn’t anything to do with the technology at all but a good old-fashioned sex scandal.
That was probably the Chinese intelligence intent, to destroy Nvidia this way. The tools are going for it.
Steve Bannon ( et al., himself already having done the job now serving by rolling release AI proxy ) Trump move. Dunno who invented it but it works
My tinfoil hat theory is that this is all orchestrated. They knew about the affair for months, but withheld it. My theory is that with the midterms results, rather than risk facing accountability as things unravel "naturally", they have this big bombshell as a "get out of blame free" card. That way everyone can collectively say "It wasn't _my_ fault things fell apart. I was doing my best, honest!"
"Nvidia" was named for envy, one of the 7 deadly sins. Maybe his next company will be "Luxuria"?
Well, the good news is this means he should be well primed to become the next Republican presidential candidate.
I still don't understand why Jensen didn't just offer the lady involved a horse.<p>I mean, that's acceptable these days isn't it?
Seems the sort of rumor anyone could produce.
<i>This</i> is how the market tanks...<p><i>SMH</i>
it would be ironic if this is how the AI 'bubble' pops.<p>Irattional things continue to be irrational i guess
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Tomorrow's opening headline: US Gov to buy NVIDIA and merge with Intel.<p>The US taxpayer wins.<p>/s
Any ousting will probably be for having an affair with a direct report. At many companies, having an 'inappropriate relationship with a customer' isn't a policy violation unless there's also evidence of undue influence, so it's more conditional and complicated. Whereas just the existence of an inappropriate relationship with a direct report is a serious violation.<p>From an HR and legal perspective, if Alice was a spy, Jensen was arguably the targeted 'victim' of a foreign intelligence operation. While it was certainly very dumb and negligent, it may not have been a policy violation or may only have been a violation of company policies like mishandling confidential information or not following IT security policies. Those aren't usually "Fire the CEO Now" things, while slamming the sheets with a direct report absolutely requires some kind of immediate action.<p>The real question is who wants Jensen gone? Because the first leak was clearly intentional and reportedly placed by 'senior White House sources', citing a confidential NSC report. Now the second leak of the inappropriate affair happens immediately after. This was a designed sequence. Both of the underlying events are several months old. Given the facts, I think the most likely source is 'China Trade/AI Hawks' in the White House (possibly the NSC). The reasoning being that Jensen has generally been trying to minimize restrictions on selling AI to China (which is, arguably, part of his job).
It looks like the midterm elections are working, politicians really don't want Chinese models they can't control to be trained.<p>I don't agree with everything David Sachs says on the All in Podcast, but it looks like it's about political control over all frontier AI models from democrats.
If we ban open weights models (read: Chinese models), we are truly fucked as a country. That is a dead end for our tech sector.<p>We cannot glue ourselves to the backs of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. We need to be anti-fragile and support a robust spectrum of AI inference being developed from all angles.<p>This would permanently wed us to a handful of vendors that will soak American businesses and innovators dry while their own products fail to reach the peak of what an open weights inclusive environment could lead to.
The Democrats haven’t taken office yet and all the people who could have leaked this information are Republicans currently so maybe think again?
You don't think it's because of his extramarital affair with Alice Huang—a Chinese businesswoman identified by U.S. intelligence officials as a Chinese intelligence asset—as well as a newly reported relationship with Nvidia executive Kimberly Powell? It's all democrats-doing? This sounds a bit red-tin-foil-hat-ish.
Affair or not, this is a tragedy for American technology.
The reports that he had a second affair with a subordinate, if true, are disgusting and would lead to termination at any other company. He should not get a pass. How someone who has had so much success could have such poor judgement is a mystery to me. It’s sad, he accomplished so much.
Why are all the tech overlords scum people? Do they become that way with power, money and fame, or is it a certain kind of person from the start that achieves these things?<p>I'm scared about how this in turn shapes society.
Kings were also famously out of touch with reality. Hierarchies, if left alone to grow this tall, do this to people.
"Nearly any man can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power" - Honest Abe
> Why are all the tech overlords scum people?<p>like sleeping Jensen Huang with an incredibly attractive Chinese agent that specifically showed traits he found desirable and exploit what ever weaknesses the Chinese spy agency could find about him to get him involved with her and divulge secrets in a SEXINT operation. Therefore Jensen is one of the worst people who are public figures.<p>I don't like CEO worship or tech culture (I know I am on hackernews but I am a developer and did like software development and related topics), but this take is crazy most people you know would probably take the bait on an operation like this even 'good' people.<p>And just take a look at the scum running things outside of Tech a lot worse then a moment of infedality, look at all western leaders you will probably find few better (or even equal) to Jensen. Jensen did not shape the shitshow you are seeing now (not saying he is not part of it), it was corrupt from the start, Just a worthless veneer of morality.<p>Don't morn your societies decay it was a cadaver from the beginning only by putrefaction will it become the soil to plant strong trees on.
Why did you have to "quote" something no one said to make your point? That's a huge tell you're arguing against a straw man. This post was after a second affair, to me that's a moral flaw, not just someone exploiting him.<p>And that "scum also exist outside tech" is just a whataboutism. It'd be a better discussion if you actually interacted with my arguments.
> Why did you have to "quote" something no one said to make your point?<p>> Why did you have to "quote" something no one said to make your point?<p>Was not trying to be dishonest but was meant to be what I felt you comment boiled down to, I will revise my comment to change the '>'.<p>> And that "scum also exist outside tech" is just a whataboutism.<p>What I was saying is not just that scum exists outside tech but that the society that created this tech culture and space is the curruption it's self and it's not worth thinking about as something to save but to replace entirely.<p>> This post was after a second affair, to me that's a moral flaw, not just someone exploiting him.<p>I am not saying it's not a moral flaw but compared what Trump has done Epstein, wars, etc. He looks like a Saint. It's pointless even talking about morality in the way you do when Trump and his weak cronies are in power. (and yes I know Nvidia under Jesen no doubt has benefit from this corruption). Infidelity is so common in are time but if only that was the worst of it.<p>What I was saying is not just that scum exists outside tech
That's an excellent question and I've been wondering about this a lot. I've known a few billionaires, exactly <i>one</i> was an amazing person, the rest were absolutely terrible people in every sense of the word. The whole word is full of NPCs to them. But your question goes to the heart of it: were they terrible people because that's a requirement for becoming a billionaire or did becoming a billionaire somewhere along the line turn them into terrible people?<p>I haven't found the answer. But I do know one thing from my (smallish) sample: the nice guy never let the money get to his head. He drove his own car (a VW Rabbit, ok, a nice one) and lived in the same house that he lived in when he started his company. And until the day he died he just kept doing what he loved without ever feeling the need to lord it over others. More like a Wozniak (who is the other 'nice billionaire' that I'm aware of but I've never met him).<p>Edit: I wrote about him:<p><a href="https://jacquesmattheij.com/in-memoriam-rene-sommer/" rel="nofollow">https://jacquesmattheij.com/in-memoriam-rene-sommer/</a>
"a certain kind of person from the start"
Edison v. Tesla is probably informative here, the system rewards scummy behavior.
Unless there’s an evidence of him being compromised, this is crazy. I’m total outsider and don’t know Nvidia copropare rule machinery, but from perceived perspective that feels like significant blow to the company.<p>I expect shit show funnier than when OpenAI tried to put Altman with same result.
Even shift leaders at McDonalds need to sign various workplace policies, including policies about relations with their direct reports. So yeah, this is not exactly a surprise or something unheard of.
Any such policy is illegal and wouldn't last in court. You can't contract away human rights.
You can't ban someone from having a relationship. But you certainly can require them to disclose such a conflict of interest to the board.
It is not a human right to have sex with whomever you wish free of restrictions.
In the US, most employment is at-will, which means they can fire you for any reason they want except for a list of prohibited reasons.<p>"Having sex with a direct report" is not on that list of prohibited reasons.
> Even shift leaders at McDonalds need to sign various workplace policies, including policies about relations with their direct reports.<p>Does Nvidia have such a policy? Unless laws have changed, this isn't an issue as far as the law is concerned.<p>(Googling - seems they may actually have this policy...)<p>From what I've heard: Nvidia's operations is heavily reliant on Jensen. He's embedded in everything. Early in the pandemic, I interviewed with them. The recruiter said that pretty much every engineer at the company will, at some point, be in a meeting that includes Jensen. I spoke to a friend who worked there and he confirmed it.<p>(Probably no longer true as they've grown a lot since then).
Even if he’s not compromised it shows a pretty serious lapse in judgment. Remember that CEO and HR exec who got caught at a Coldplay concert?
Nvidia is Jensen. If he's out, NVidia crashes and takes the AI bubble with it
I have no qualms with this outcome.<p>EDIT: I assume the bubble will collapse into correction eventually, sooner is better than later.
It would be quite funny.<p>NVidia doesn't need Jensen in the short / medium term - they are printing money. Unless we discover that all this circular financing was some kind of scheme.<p>We have 2 other companies though, Tesla and SpaceX, which CEO represents 90% of the valuation. That will be the real one.
It:s because he's close to Trump.
I wonder if Trump will retaliate against Nvidia. Neither (firing, retaliating) would be good for the world economy.
The NYT reports that Huang was caught on video with this second affair when they were together in San Jose.<p>Seems like this video and the first affair with the spy was a classic blackmail operation used against him as I said before [0] and Huang likely said no to the wrong person.<p>It is over.<p>[0] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50417105">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50417105</a>
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Hmm, though Nvidia would like to sell their chips to China, surely this would be bad for the US overall to remove a man who has only said positive things about selling to china not broken trade embargo as far as I know. This makes American business look bad and compromised.<p>Getting rid of Jesen might be useful for the US AI labs, but what exactly would be the plan their. I can not see a benefit to them with this move, though I can not see any thing particularly negative for them.
Whether you like it or not. Circumventing export controls is a crime.
But he hasnt done that, it seems. They're allegeding the company the lady was associated with has been doing this, they deny it. It all seems like he said/she said hearsay.<p>The only evidence we have is Jensen drinking wine with this lady, I dont think him having drinks with someone is evidence he was participating in a conspiracy to circumvent export controls.<p>I dont really care if he jad an affair or not, but I think its crazy how easy it is to manufacture consent around the idea that he's a double agent by just posting picture of him being in the same room as someone.<p>Maybe more will come out, but there's no texts, emails or anything. Its just WSJ articles that had three pieces of legislation introduced to ban Chinese access to GPUs.<p>Its also wild how people think having GPUs is dangerous. China isnt going to harm us with matrix multiplication lol. Now Huawei will build better platforms, constraints are the seeds of innovation. If I was the US I would much rather flood their market with cheep back-doored GPUs. Which leads me to believe these actions are all on anti-competitive measures on behalf of Anthropic, who's spent a boatload on political lobbying.
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