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Nvidia is preparing to oust Jensen Huang

1138 points • by jbredeche • yesterday at 10:31 PM • 1526 comments • view on HN

Comments

foxfired • today at 12:23 AM

My armchair analysis is that going forward with this will most likely make the AI bubble pop.

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.

* Opposite of Envy (nvidia)

dabinat • yesterday at 10:57 PM

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.

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Stevvo • yesterday at 11:14 PM

Hard to imagine this happening. Curious if he will pull off a coup like Sam Altman.

ex-aws-dude • today at 5:01 AM

Why does it feel like half these comments are NVDA holders?

These things would be clear causes for resignation at any big corp

razodactyl • today at 7:57 AM

Good luck with their stock. He's on par with Steve Jobs level of marketing.

modzu • today at 7:17 AM

it's because the gamers haven't been able to buy a gpu since 2024

greenavocado • today at 12:29 AM

If the big boys can fly to LSJ to eat "beef jerky" and fully avoid prosecution, then this is a CIA coup, because virtually nobody really cares about how he warmed his stick. They are probably mad at him for moving product to the Chinese, who they can't control as easily. They are going to install a puppet they can properly control. And "pace the frontier" by sucking the oxygen out of the room for open source and local models.

sergiotapia • yesterday at 11:47 PM

Mission accomplished: nvidia nationalized.

cft • yesterday at 11:33 PM

That was probably the Chinese intelligence intent, to destroy Nvidia this way. The tools are going for it.

ares623 • yesterday at 11:30 PM

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!"

psdndown • today at 2:03 AM

Well, Mr. Huang sure seems to have turned his life upside down.

The extramarital affairs, while salacious, are largely immaterial.

The key issue seems to be not merely was he sleeping with someone who was not his wife, but rather, that he was sleeping with a Chinese spy who was rather essentially running a export smuggling operation to China in violation of United States law specifically crafted to recognize these Nvidia chips as sufficiently high-end to merit a national security concern.

And apparently, the United States government knew about it. But never told him they knew. What Huang personally knew is not clear, and is likely now to be subject to inquiry from a Congress that has also been turned upside down, ushering in a wave of AI skeptics while Huang was notable at the White House's "AI summit" for his almost singular bullishness. Howard Lutnick personally shut down an investigation, concerns from the CIA were not acted upon.

Donald Trump has seen people try to turn his life upside down given salacious scandals. Perhaps the President of the United States and Lutnick (among the well-heeled class known to have lied about their Epstein island connections) simply do not care, given both openly embrace Huang as a source of profit. It's also not clear the President shares the United States natsec consensus (what some of his followers term "the swamp") that actually sees Xi or China as a threat. After all, he plans to have what is likely to be another highly docile visit to the Chinese leader next week.

Put another way, it seems the federal government did not act as turning Mr. Huang's life upside down may have been calculated to turn the entire economy and their fortunes (both personal and political) upside down. Perhaps there is a backroom deal with China the President, Lutnick and Huang are secretly accommodating? I mean why would they not at least warn him?

The present irony is of course, for whatever aligned reasons that led to this hush-hush arrangement, the cat is out of the bag now. One wonders if the consequences this threatens to unleash in the present moment would have been mitigated if instead of trying to pretend it wasn't happening, the powers that be had acted with greater preemption. Perhaps so it goes. The best laid plans of this sort are often turned upside down.

TheArcane • today at 7:42 AM

silicon valley - paedophilia is fine, but sleeping with a Chinese AI executive is where I draw the line

Metacelsus • yesterday at 11:40 PM

"Nvidia" was named for envy, one of the 7 deadly sins. Maybe his next company will be "Luxuria"?

ceoswang • today at 12:27 AM

insane that an infidelity should have any bearing on the ability to lead the company he took from zero to 5 trillion

moralism blocking progress once again

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yipinwong • today at 12:21 AM

It's easy to blame a person like dumb Jensen who slept with the Chinese spy.

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.

tayo42 • yesterday at 10:43 PM

Should have sold at 220 ugh

But there's no real competitors still? Even for the medium term?

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russellbeattie • today at 12:20 AM

Beijing is laughing their asses off at us.

As soon as they baited Huang, it was all win-win for them. China would be able to either get access to secrets and/or chips they wouldn't have before, or they'd decapitate one of the most important companies in the U.S. The public outcry to this is exactly as planned.

Truly ridiculous and anyone with their pitchforks out needs to get a clue.

aanet • yesterday at 10:55 PM

This is how the market tanks...

SMH

protocolture • today at 1:47 AM

Does every man, woman, other and pet in silicon valley still inform for Stratfor?

His crime is he put his junk in the wrong kind of spy?

macinjosh • today at 1:07 AM

Maybe now Apple and nvidia can rekindle their relationship after the bubble pops. Apple could come to the rescue, secure a heavy investment and enter into the cloud computing business.

44mkultra69 • yesterday at 10:46 PM

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

etchalon • yesterday at 11:56 PM

And another Mackenzie Scott is born.

thrownawaysz • yesterday at 11:38 PM

It’s pretty clear (if you aren’t a huge idiot) that Jensen is attempting to bury the lead here.

He knowingly helped advance China’s AI ambitions against the direction of congress. He got caught selling 7.5 Billion dollars of restricted chips to china.

Also he cheated on his wife with some Chinese woman, which is a totally separate and unrelated fuck up.

If you seriously think he got tricked by some random woman who batted her eyes, you are out of your mind. He founded the fucking company, he isn’t some clueless executive. He’s also not senile and he doesn’t have dementia. This is the only viable excuse for him to use, but it’s complete bullshit.

Think about it: He betrayed his longtime wife, who by all accounts supported him from the beginning. He betrayed his company and its shareholders. And he betrayed his country (BOTH of his countries?) who specifically forbid the chips to be sold to china. He’s fucked

user- • yesterday at 11:05 PM

it would be ironic if this is how the AI 'bubble' pops.

Irattional things continue to be irrational i guess

tamimio • today at 4:48 AM

I feel this is way over amplified to further restrict chinese models/open weights development by further controlling the company with a new CEO.. seriously, who cares what he’s doing in his personal life, I am not a big fan of him much as he should have made GPUs further more accessible to consumers, but he’s definitely not an evil AI lunatic like some AI ceo bros we see now.

snvzz • yesterday at 10:41 PM

Seems the sort of rumor anyone could produce.

LightBug1 • yesterday at 11:24 PM

I still don't understand why Jensen didn't just offer the lady involved a horse.

I mean, that's acceptable these days isn't it?

Krea8ly • today at 1:25 PM

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hongsy • today at 12:36 AM

Is there a archive.ph link? This article is paywalled.

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justinai6 • today at 12:43 AM

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DominoPizza26 • today at 5:02 AM

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mrandish • yesterday at 11:54 PM

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.

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.

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).

dust42 • today at 1:03 AM

He has to go because he opposes restrictions to run Chinese open weight models on NVIDIAs GPUs. He said so in an Axios interview in July - "The industry needs open models, science needs open models, cybersecurity needs open models". [1]

[1] https://www.facebook.com/ChinainAus/videos/nvidia-ceo-jensen...

class3shock • yesterday at 11:28 PM

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.

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.

andsoitis • today at 1:39 AM

CEO sleeps with customer. CEO sleeps with someone who reports to him. Time to go.

whyenot • yesterday at 11:06 PM

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.

int32_64 • yesterday at 11:15 PM

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?

https://x.com/ChinaSelect/status/2120253050845593723

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galkk • yesterday at 10:45 PM

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.

I expect shit show funnier than when OpenAI tried to put Altman with same result.

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