From a semiconductor rock star to an adulterous man... Jensen Huang's biggest crisis in 3 years (comprehensive)

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kwak Min-seo and Kim Seung-wook = NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, who emerged as a 'rock star' in the semiconductor industry over the past three years, suddenly became a 'person in crisis' on the chopping block in the political and business world due to a scandal of having an affair with a woman involved in suspicion of Chinese espionage.

According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 9th (local time), Jensen Huang is a person who has rapidly emerged as a global celebrity along with the explosive growth of the generative artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

As generative AI, including ChatGPT, spreads rapidly in 2023, the status of NVIDIA, which supplies semiconductors for AI computing, has rapidly increased.

As Nvidia's market capitalization exceeded $5 trillion (approximately KRW 7200 trillion) for the first time as a listed company, the value of NVIDIA stock held by Jensen Huang also increased to approximately $143 billion (approximately KRW 206 trillion).

With his enormous assets and his trademark black leather jacket, he has become an icon representing the AI ​​semiconductor era.

“Jensen Huang has become a rock star over the past three years, and like any other rock star, he has attracted a lot of public attention,” David Yoffey, a professor at Harvard Business School, told the NYT.

In fact, Jensen Huang is evaluated as having taken a different path from the big executives who led the semiconductor industry in the past.

Former Intel CEO Andy Grove, once the most famous figure in the semiconductor industry, never owned more than hundreds of millions of dollars in stock. Intel co-founder Gordon Moore was one of the few billionaires in the industry, but he was also known to have maintained a calm lifestyle.

On the other hand, Jensen Huang not only accumulated enormous wealth, but also led the company by exercising virtually absolute influence over Nvidia.

He rejected the traditional organizational chart and adhered to a unique management style in which he received direct reports from about 60 executives, and directly led the company's major decisions and various projects.

Furthermore, Jensen Huang showed his presence by actively participating in political events and external activities.

He especially built a close relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, and last May, he boarded the presidential plane, Air Force One, to accompany President Trump on his visit to China.

President Trump showed off his friendship by calling Jensen Huang directly during a podcast broadcast last September, and awarded him the National Medal of Science last month.

In Korea, the image of Jensen Huang and Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Eui-sun Eui-sun having a so-called 'kanbu meeting' at a chicken restaurant in Gangnam, Seoul and sharing wheat and drinking wheat became a hot topic in October last year.

However, Jensen Huang's success story, which had been on the rise, was recently severely damaged by an unprecedented affair scandal.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the beginnings of this affair scandal appear to have already been revealed in 2024.

Alice Huang (real name Huang Le, 黃樂), a Chinese woman involved in the scandal, and Jensen Huang were photographed together at the after-party of a technology conference held in Taipei, Taiwan in June 2024, and were also spotted together at a private dinner held in Taipei in May of last year.

Alice Huang is a former executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company. Megaspeed was founded in 2023 as a spin-off from the Chinese company Seven Road Holdings, and promoted a project to build a data center in Southeast Asia using NVIDIA semiconductors.

The U.S. Department of Commerce began an investigation in late 2024, considering the possibility that Megaspeed may have violated U.S. semiconductor export control regulations.

In October last year, it was reported that U.S. federal investigative authorities were investigating the relationship between Jensen Huang and Alice Huang in relation to Megaspeed's possible export of semiconductors to China.

This spring, it was reported that a confidential memo warning about a personal relationship between the two was written under the supervision of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Around this time, the Justice Department also began leading the investigation into Megaspeed.

Afterwards, on the 29th of last month, the controversy grew out of control as reports continued that US intelligence authorities had determined that Alice Huang was an informant for the Chinese intelligence agency.

Meanwhile, there were reports that Jensen Huang entrusted advice to a company specializing in sexual scandal crisis management last year.

Wired, an American information technology (IT) media outlet, reported on this day that Nvidia signed a business contract with a public relations company called ‘Heller’ in October last year.

Lisa Heller, the founder of 'Heller', is known as a person who has gained a reputation as a solution to celebrities who are embroiled in sexual misconduct allegations or controversies about their private lives.

However, it is reported that ‘Heller’ is also in charge of general corporate public relations work. It has not been confirmed whether the issue of Jensen Huang's affair was included in the work that 'Heller' was assigned to at the beginning of the contract with Nvidia.

Jensen Huang acknowledged the affair the day before and apologized to his family and Nvidia executives and employees.

NVIDIA's stock price plummeted by 8.8% at one point during the day and closed down 4.3%, and its market capitalization evaporated by $190 billion (about 274 trillion won) on this day alone.

NVIDIA shareholders in the United States filed a class action lawsuit against NVIDIA and Jensen Huang, demanding compensation for damages caused by the sharp drop in stock price.

First of all, President Trump directly defended Jensen Huang. He met with reporters in the White House briefing room that day and revealed that he had spoken on the phone with Jensen Huang, saying, "He said he had no idea that the person in question was a spy. I believe him."