segunda-feira, 9 de novembro de 2026
Silicon Valley and Trump rally behind Nvidia CEO after his affair with alleged Chinese spy
Silicon
Valley and Trump rally behind Nvidia CEO after his affair with alleged Chinese
spy
Elon Musk
and other finance moguls defend Jensen Huang after he admitted to the affair in
an email to employees
Mon 9 Nov
2026 18.58 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/nov/09/nvidia-jensen-huang-affair-trump-musk
Donald Trump, Elon Musk and
prominent finance moguls have expressed their support for embattled Nvidia CEO Jensen
Huang, as the head of the world’s most valuable chip company faces an
internal investigation
over a romantic relationship with an alleged Chinese spy.
“I have
not spoken to him about it,” the US president told reporters on Sunday. “I
just know he’s a fine person, but you never know what is going on. I’m sure, I
hope everything’s fine. He’s done such an incredible job”.
“I think
he’s an honorable guy. I think he probably has an excuse for it,” Trump later
added, saying he believed that Huang would and should stay on as CEO.
Huang’s
defenders framed his affair as a personal lapse in judgment rather than
evidence of treachery against the United States, which has imposed strict
limits on what chips Nvidia
can sell to China.
Huang,
who has been married to his wife, Lori, since 1985, admitted in an email to
employees on Sunday that he had an affair and that he would cooperate with an
internal investigation. Nvidia’s board of directors put out a statement the
same day that the company was launching a probe regarding reports that Huang
was the target of a foreign intelligence effort.
The chip
mogul is alleged to have had a relationship with Alice Huang, a businesswoman
that US intelligence services suspect of spying for the Chinese government, according
to The New York Times. Trump was reportedly briefed on the relationship
last year, the Times reported, but took no action. Alice Huang and Jensen Huang
are unrelated, with the latter being one of the world’s richest men and CEO of
Nvidia, worth more than $4tn, for the past 33 years.
US
intelligence agencies believe Alice Huang, acting on behalf of Beijing, pushed
Jensen Huang to lobby Trump for relaxed export controls on Nvidia’s sales in
China, which he has done multiple times publicly. Nvidia said in a statement
that neither trade secrets nor US national security had been compromised.
The
affair and alleged intelligence operation involving Huang could have far
reaching implications for Nvidia and the tech industry, which are already
enduring a period
of high market volatility. Huang’s leadership of Nvidia, which is deeply
financially intertwined with other leading tech companies like OpenAI, has long
been viewed as crucial to the company’s success and stability.
As news
of the scandal broke over the weekend, Musk and prominent investors shared
their support of Huang. Musk posted “I agree” in response to prominent venture
capitalist Shaun Maguire’s defense of Huang. Maguire argued the Nvidia CEO “did
something incredibly dumb” but that he is “one of the greatest entrepreneurs of
this generation”.
“Two
mistakes don’t make a right, and I believe Jensen is irreplaceable for
America’s AI leadership,” Maguire posted. He stated the Nvidia CEO “did
something incredibly dumb” but that he is “one of the greatest entrepreneurs of
this generation”.
“Let’s
also not nuke our AI industry because China ran a successful intel op,” Maguire
added in a separate post.
Bill
Ackman, the US hedge fund manager and pro-Trump billionaire, meanwhile,
suggested that Huang is “human” and deserves public support over the affair.
“He is an
incredible human. Even incredible humans make mistakes,” Ackman posted. “He
takes full responsibility as he should. We should all support him and his
family. Onward.”
Ackman
followed up with another post later clarifying that he wasn’t suggesting Huang
“gets a free pass” but that he was “hoping for a simple affair, not a risk to
our national security”.
China has
meanwhile denied allegations of an intelligence operation targeting Huang, with
the
Associated Press reporting that foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun
rejected the allegations as “entirely baseless vilification and smearing”.
Nvidia
and its chips have been an integral part of the AI boom in recent years, with hundreds
of billions of dollars committed to building out projects such as
datacenters and chip factories. In August, Nvidia agreed to provide
a $105bn guarantee to help OpenAI lease an Ohio datacenter.
As Nvidia
has grown in prominence, Huang has also become one of the world’s richest
people and most influential figures in tech. He has taken calls from Trump in
the middle of an all-hands company meeting and on stage at a conference, and attended
state dinners with the president and accompanied
him on a trip to China. Huang has also been a powerful voice on tech policy,
weighing in on issues such as export controls of chips to China and regulation
of open-source AI models.
Nvidia’s
stock price fell on Monday as speculation swirled around Huang’s future at the
company and the extent of damage from the affair. Shares were down around 5% as
of midday and were on track to wipe out around $200bn in market value. The
losses extend a six-month slide for what was once the world’s most valuable
company, with Nvidia shares down over 20% since May.
