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Reports of a second compromising affair may be the undoing of the Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, even though the first affair was with an alleged Chinese spy. Earlier this week, tech titans were going out of their way to minimize the scandal at Nvidia. Huang had confessed to an affair with an alleged foreign agent, but he was “irreplaceable,” according to Elon Musk. Huang had potentially put trade secrets and national security at risk, but he was an “honorable guy,” said President Trump, and “he probably has an excuse for it.” The billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman posted on X, “Onward,” implying: Move along—nothing to see here.
Huang, it seemed, was too big to fail. Interested parties were more willing to ignore the obvious dangers than contemplate what it might mean to lose the man so singularly identified with the company at the center of the AI boom, the company so important that it might be currently propping up the U.S. economy.
That was true until Wednesday, when news broke of a second affair Huang had, with an executive at Nvidia who reports directly to him. Nvidia’s board met to consider Huang’s future and is now reportedly considering removing him, a move that Atlantic staff writer Charlie Warzel describes as “taking a Jenga block out” of the AI tower.
Staff writers Shane Harris, who covers intelligence agencies, and Warzel, who covers the tech industry, discuss on Radio Atlantic both the espionage and the business. Harris considers how China might have pulled this off, and what secrets they might have obtained. Warzel considers what the future of Nvidia, and the AI boom more broadly, might look like without its leader.
Transcript of the episode forthcoming
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