Can Huang Renxun, who has lost his halo, still be able to support Nvidia?

(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) Nvidia President Jensen Huang admitted to having an extramarital affair with a woman who U.S. intelligence officials believe is a Chinese spy. The matter could have far-reaching consequences for the company, which has a market value of $5 trillion (4.47 trillion euros).

Influence damaged: Analysts say Nvidia is overly dependent on Jensen Huang

Nvidia shares fell early Monday.

Tim Culpan, an Asian technology reporter who has reported closely on Nvidia and Huang Renxun for many years, told Deutsche Welle that Nvidia's basic advantages as a company still exist, but Huang Renxun has personally been greatly hurt by this incident.

"They're still going to make great chips and they're still going to sell them to millions of customers around the world who want the best AI chips," he said.

"His (Huang Jen-Hsun) opinion carries much less weight now. In the long run, this will affect Nvidia and its own corporate interests. The impact (on the business) will not be immediate. But in fact, just because of this incident, he personally no longer has the kind of influence and power that he may have had a week ago."

Richard Windsor, a technology analyst and founder of research firm Radio Free Mobile, said the news could be very serious for Nvidia given that it has largely revolved around Huang for decades.

"This problem is particularly acute because Huang is a micro-manager, meaning that he ultimately makes the key decisions that make the company successful, and there is no obvious successor to the company," he said.

"I suspect we're about to see just how dependent the market thinks this company is on its iconic founder and CEO."

Sino-US chip game: Huang Renxun has repeatedly lobbied to relax exports to China

Despite Huang's close relationship with Trump, Nvidia and Huang's attitudes toward China and potential Chinese customers have been a point of contention among U.S. intelligence officials.

Huang has repeatedly lobbied Trump to relax restrictions on the sale of Nvidia chips to China. An export control deal in 2025 sharply limited sales of Nvidia chips, but Trump later allowed exports of older Nvidia H200 chips to China on the condition that the U.S. government take a cut of the sales.

However, this arrangement has been complicated and progress has been slow due to strict export licensing scrutiny in Washington. Despite strong demand from Chinese companies, Beijing has also initiated import controls. China does not have access to the most advanced artificial intelligence chips. Beijing hopes to develop its own alternatives but has struggled to catch up.

Huang Renxun believes that China's reliance on Nvidia chips can prevent competitors such as Huawei from catching up, and can also prevent China from realizing its ambition to dominate the artificial intelligence supply chain.

However, many U.S. intelligence officials disagree. They worry that if China has unrestricted access to the most advanced Nvidia chips, it will promote the development of China's domestic artificial intelligence industry, enable China's artificial intelligence models to catch up with the United States' leading models, and may also be used for China's military purposes.

Competition between China and the United States has become a core theme in global artificial intelligence development, with both countries seeking to gain the upper hand in the technology. Leading figures in U.S. artificial intelligence companies such as Anthropic's Dario Amodei believe that in order to prevent Chinese companies from gaining an advantage, U.S. artificial intelligence companies cannot afford to suspend development for a long time to keep up with artificial intelligence safety standards.

Trade secret concerns: Analysts doubt China’s benefits will be limited

A core concern in Washington about Huang's affair is that it could lead to Beijing gaining access to important trade secrets or other critical information about how Nvidia makes its most advanced chips.

Windsor believes Huang will survive this "serious test" because of his importance to the company. He also expressed doubts about how much Beijing and China's leading technology companies have learned from Nvidia chips, noting that China has its own chip ambitions and has promised to let its companies buy domestic semiconductors.

"I find it difficult to believe that Chinese AI has materially benefited from technology acquired by Nvidia or illegally imported chips," he said.

Valuations under pressure: Artificial intelligence boom faces doubts

This comes at a time when Nvidia faces unique challenges. As a leading manufacturer of cutting-edge semiconductors needed for artificial intelligence applications, Nvidia has benefited greatly from the artificial intelligence boom.

Nvidia's valuation has soared in recent years as companies rush to buy its chips, becoming the world's first company with a market capitalization of US$5 trillion in October 2025.

However, doubts about the sustainability of the $9 trillion in capital spending boom for artificial intelligence have triggered a massive sell-off in related stocks in recent weeks. Democratic victories in the U.S. midterm elections have heightened such concerns, as U.S. voters strongly oppose the construction of data centers.