The relationship between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Alice Huang, the woman that the U.S. government reportedly identified as a Chinese intelligence asset, dates back to at least 2023, and the two have built a rapport that facilitated the shipment of at least $7.5 billion worth of Nvidia chips through Chinese companies since then, according to two people who know her. Alice Huang, her sister and her husband have built a labyrinth of companies spanning China and Singapore to acquire Nvidia chips, according to the people who know Alice Huang and corporate registration records. At the center of that corporate network is Shanghai Century Litong, a China-based company that was founded in June 2023 and, by October, was added to Nvidia’s list of preferred cloud partners, a status that comes with priority access to Nvidia’s chips.
| ||
How Jensen Huang’s Years-Long Ties to Alice Huang Enabled $7 Billion-Plus Nvidia Chip Sales to ChinaBy The Information Staff @@@@@@@@@@Late Breaking Development@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Well, that didn’t take long. Jensen Huang’s time as CEO of Nvidia appears to be coming to an end, according to multiple reports that the board was meeting Wednesday night to consider his future. Just three days ago, it announced an inquiry into whether he was the “target of a foreign intelligence effort,” but at the time the board said it had “confidence in Jensen.” It seems likely that confidence was undermined by a New York Times story on Wednesday that said Huang had had an affair with a company executive in addition to an industry executive who may also be a Chinese spy. If the board dumps Huang, it will demonstrate that no CEO is indispensable, no matter how vital their role is. Many observers had insisted the opposite in recent days, perhaps understandably. After all, Huang co-founded the company and still owned 3.6% of the stock, making him one of the biggest shareholders. As we wrote in this piece, he “has a hand in nearly every aspect of the company’s day-to-day operations.” Along with Sam Altman, he’s been probably the most articulate advocate for AI. Most importantly, his vision of the future has positioned Nvidia to benefit more than any other company from the AI boom, driving its market capitalization to a high of $5.8 trillion in early October, according to Koyfin. Not surprisingly, investors have freaked out about the possibility of his exit. After falling 10% in the first two days of this week, Nvidia was trading down 8% in after hours trading on Wednesday to around $160, giving the company a market capitalization of around $3.85 trillion. The question now is who will replace him. There are no obvious internal candidates, although Nvidia could appoint an executive as interim chief. That suggests the board will have to go outside Nvidia. Earlier this week we suggested that either AMD CEO Lisa Su or Arm CEO Rene Haas could succeed Huang. On TITV on Tuesday, D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria suggested Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan. This is a big job. Who can do it? |
