Credit, Reuters
If I had said last week that Jensen Huang was about to leave Nvidia, nobody would have believed me.
Huang, who co-founded this wildly successful artificial intelligence (AI) chip company, worked tirelessly to build it from the ground up, and steered it through disastrous periods with endless energy and relentless determination, was eventually brought down by his own love life.
It's an extraordinary and curiously old-fashioned story for a forward-looking technology company.
On Thursday (12/11), he resigned after consecutive revelations of two extramarital affairs. The news of the first, a romantic relationship with a businesswoman accused of being a Chinese spy, reverberated around the world, causing confusion among investors.
On Wednesday, reports emerged that he had also had an affair with a colleague at Nvidia.
The case sparked a flood of memes that went viral, showing Huang, for example, as the man caught by the "Kiss Cam" at a Coldplay concert next to a married colleague, or Huang singing "Careless Whisper," George Michael's classic song about infidelity.
Ironically, both memes were created by AI, using the same technology that Huang helped develop.
This week, I met two executives from Silicon Valley, the region of the United States where the headquarters of large technology companies are located, and asked how they were dealing with the news about Huang and Nvidia. “With memes,” they replied.
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But they didn't seem to believe that Huang — married for 41 years to Lori Huang, with whom he had two children — would be forced to step down because of the infidelity he publicly admitted to.
According to these executives interviewed by the BBC on condition of anonymity, there was a lot at stake. The entire AI industry depends so much on Nvidia chips that it wouldn't make sense to mess with a successful formula.
In other words, Silicon Valley was on his side.
But that was before rumors surfaced of a second extramarital affair, this time with a co-worker at Nvidia.
The company’s board of directors then decided that Huang had gone too far and began to discuss his future (and potential replacement).
Suddenly, his behavior came to be seen from another perspective: that of a man capable of making bad decisions and hiding them.
On Thursday (11/12), Huang resigned.
Long working hours and competitive spirit
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Huang has always made a point of standing out from the rest.
During quarantines during the Covid-19 pandemic, Huang broadcast lectures from his kitchen, which also gained internet fame. However, it was later revealed that the images had been generated by AI.
Huang rarely appears without a leather jacket and has joked that he only has a suit and that he borrows his daughter's boyfriend's tie.
In recent years, he frequently socialized with influential people, with a network of contacts that included US President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and King Charles III.
The last time I saw him was last year at St. James's Palace in London, United Kingdom, where he received the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Award for Engineering.
At the time, I was informed by those around him that he would not speak to the press. But Huang approached me spontaneously, and we talked for about ten minutes, while press officers watched the scene, visibly nervous. He spoke clearly and expressed optimism about AI advances and the UK's role in the sector.
For many people, Huang was Nvidia itself. Up to 200 employees reported directly to him.
Huang demanded a high standard of performance. In the book The Nvidia Way, author Tae Kim wrote that the working hours were long.
Huang's criticism could be harsh and delivered in front of everyone. He didn't hesitate to point out employees' mistakes during meetings with the entire team.
Now, it is Huang's own failings that are publicly exposed, and he has been forced to end his career in an equally harsh manner.
Nvidia without Huang
Colette Kress, who takes charge of the company for now, is already well known internally, which should reassure some of Nvidia's employees.
She has worked at the company for 13 years and anyone who follows Nvidia's financial results is used to seeing her on conference calls announcing the company's balance sheets. Kress is a billionaire like Huang, due to her stake in the company, and occupies a prominent position in the technology sector.
But she's not an engineer, and Nvidia's products are highly technically complex.
Kress will have to convince investors that Nvidia will continue to operate normally, that the innovation the company is known for can maintain its current pace, and that its top talent won’t leave the company along with Huang.
A weakened Nvidia would be bad news for the entire AI industry. After all, its increasingly advanced chips are fundamental to the functioning of the most powerful AI models. The company is also seen as a kind of central bank for the sector, as it lends money to other companies.
As for Huang himself, the expectation, for now, is that the investigation into his relationship with the woman accused of being a Chinese spy will continue. The results may determine your next steps.
Despite his behavior, it is likely that there will be no shortage of job offers for Huang. And I imagine that Nvidia's competitors can hardly believe their luck in seeing such a powerful opponent leave the scene on their own. Elon Musk has already stated that it would be "an honor" to work with him at SpaceX.
But it's important to remember that even if it turns out Huang didn't betray his company or his country, he still betrayed his wife, Lori Huang.
And for her, this is not a story about technology, temptation and trillion-dollar market valuations.
It is a deeply personal and painful issue.
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