Jensen Huang, the CEO and co-founder of the world’s most prominent chip company, has allegedly been honey-trapped by a suspected Chinese spy, and the news has struck the internet like a match to gasoline.
Huang has long been seen as a wife guy (or so everyone assumed). He and his wife, Lori, have been together since the 1980s, and both of their children work at Nvidia. Huang has been the closest thing the tech world has to a rock star, with fans lining up for selfies and autographs. Of all the AI overlords, the leather-jacket wearing Huang has seemed like the most level-headed and least erratic, which is why this plot twist has hit so hard.
The potential fallout is mind-boggling. Nvidia looms so large over the U.S. stock market that even the company’s domestic drama is a market risk. Countless AI startups depend on Nvidia chips, so any shake-up at the top would ripple far beyond the company. And Nvidia has no publicly disclosed succession plan, so if Huang leaves, it’s unclear who’d take over.
