image copyrightGetty Images
The global technology industry was buzzing all day with shocking news. It was news that Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, which boasts a corporate value of trillions of dollars, and an entrepreneur famous for his charismatic leadership and leather jacket-wearing, was being investigated by the company due to suspicions of an affair with a woman accused of being a Chinese spy.
It was truly an unimaginable development.
Naturally, his family will be literally riding a roller coaster of emotions due to allegations of an affair with Alice Huang (no relation to Jensen Huang), who is known to be the former CEO of a Singapore-based data center company. But this scandal could go beyond a simple family affair and develop into a complex vortex of technology, geopolitics, and national security.
Ultimately, this incident is about the fierce struggle for hegemony between the United States and China, and also the question of whether Jensen Huang betrayed not only his wife, but also the United States.
Currently, the United States is engaged in fierce competition with China in the artificial intelligence (AI) technology race.
US President Donald Trump also said, “Whoever wins in AI is the ultimate winner.”
President Trump believes that the country that holds AI hegemony will ultimately benefit the most from AI technology and will ultimately become the world's most powerful nation. Maybe his judgment is right.
And the company that produces the industry's best AI chips is none other than NVIDIA. It is so popular that supply cannot keep up with demand.
End of TOP News
The price is accordingly considerable. The price of one Nvidia's latest data center equipment starts at 37,000 pounds (about 66 million won). Medium to large data centers often have hundreds of pieces of this equipment installed.
The U.S. government initially banned the export of Nvidia's latest products to China in an effort to prevent China from exploiting advanced technology. Afterwards, regulations were somewhat relaxed.
However, there is a possibility that 'Megaspeed', which Alice Huang led while she was serving as CEO, was involved in smuggling Nvidia's technology products into China.
Bloomberg News reported that Megaspeed purchased billions of dollars worth of Nvidia technology in November last year. Megaspeed denies allegations that it was involved in illegal activities.
Meanwhile, CEO Jensen Huang has argued that the race for AI hegemony is not that important and that there is nothing wrong with China becoming dependent on American technology. In this way, they have actively lobbied for the easing of export restrictions between the US and China, asserting a position that runs counter to general public opinion.
In an interview with the BBC last year, he said, "President Trump wants the United States to win, and President Xi Jinping wants China to win. Both countries can win."
But neither the United States nor China will think so.
End of content
Currently, NVIDIA has to answer some difficult questions. Whether intentionally or not, Alice Huang could have had special access to the company's latest technology through Jensen Huang. And if so, would Alice Huang have shared this with the Chinese government or others?
It is unknown when their affair began and ended, but there are several photos and videos showing the two together at various events. Looking at this, we can guess that there was a time when the two spent quite a long time together. And CEO Jensen Huang has always said that he lives his life immersed in work.
Meanwhile, China is denying Ellis Huang's spy theory.
Interest in espionage in the economic sector is neither a new phenomenon nor a problem limited to China. However, many Western countries claim that China is conducting espionage on a large scale using operatives and technological means that have infiltrated various organizations, including private technology companies.
If China secures a sufficient quantity of NVIDIA semiconductors and uses them or disassembles the chips to produce its own semiconductors, the Trump administration, which seeks to keep America's AI technology a complete secret, will be enraged.
Some semiconductor models were not even provided to the UK's AI Safety Research Center because they were considered potentially too dangerous to share. The United States does not want anyone getting ahead of or misusing its innovative technologies.
Meanwhile, another potential detonator is national security information that CEO Hwang may have encountered.
As America's top elite, he is probably one of the few people who boasts so much influence that he can enter the White House without notice and have tea with Trump.
He has influence, access, and powerful friends. It is quite possible that national security secrets were leaked to his ears.
However, NVIDIA stated that there is currently no evidence that he leaked any information, and has begun an internal investigation.
CEO Hwang said he would like to keep his position while cooperating with the investigation. However, it is clear that he at least violated the company's own code of conduct, which states that as a member of the company, he must not have relationships with customers.
So, can CEO Hwang survive?
For now, he has the support of both Nvidia's board of directors and President Trump. President Trump is staying out of trouble for his tech boss friend, insisting that he is a "great" guy and there must have been a reason for what happened.
Nvidia's stock price fell, but did not plummet, meaning that shareholders did not abandon the company he led in droves.
If NVIDIA weakens, the AI industry will undoubtedly experience slower growth.
Moreover, even if CEO Hwang steps down, there is no natural successor waiting to replace him.
CEO Hwang has led NVIDIA for over 30 years, and to many people, he is NVIDIA itself. He has overcome several crises and is a person who suggested that companies should focus on AI even before the AI industry became popular.
He is known as a demanding boss who demands long working hours and high levels of performance from his employees. There is also an anecdote that a company-wide meeting was called to reprimand an individual who committed a mistake. He said his intention was to prevent others from making the same mistake, but it is not difficult to imagine how those involved must have felt.
While he waits for the results of the investigation into his actions, CEO Hwang can only hope that his colleagues will tolerate his mistakes, even though he has not overlooked them in the past.
We must also accept the irony that it may not have been a sophisticated operation using cutting-edge technology, but rather the oldest method of operation, the beauty world.
