Musk and other Silicon Valley allies support Huang Jen-Hsun, calling him “irreplaceable”

Within hours of Jensen Huang admitting on Sunday that he had been unfaithful to his wife, some of Silicon Valley's most powerful investors came to support him.

They spoke out mainly through social media and conveyed a highly consistent message: Huang's affair with a woman whom U.S. officials identified as a Chinese spy was a personal fault. They believe that losing the Nvidia CEO will be a much greater blow to the country. Without Huang Renxun, the United States cannot win the artificial intelligence competition.

“Jensen Huang is one of the most brilliant entrepreneurs of this generation,” Sequoia Capital partner Sean Maguire wrote in a post Sunday afternoon. He said that Huang Jen-Hsun "did an extremely stupid thing" that was not good for the United States, "but I guess he had no ill intentions." He concluded that Huang "is irreplaceable for the United States' leadership in artificial intelligence."

About an hour later, Elon Musk retweeted the post, adding: "I agree."

The support reflects Huang's prominence in Silicon Valley. Since co-founding Nvidia more than 30 years ago, he has risen from the head of a maker of video game graphics cards to a leader at the heart of the artificial intelligence boom. Today, Nvidia is one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Nvidia's chips are a scarce resource that all artificial intelligence companies need, which makes Huang Renxun a "kingmaker" to a certain extent. Who gets his product, and how much, could influence which startups and tech giants emerge from the crowd. Nvidia's finances are also closely tied to leading artificial intelligence companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

(China has denied the accusations. Alice Huang, a Chinese executive accused of spying for Beijing, has not responded to a request for comment.)

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman called Huang "a great man" who "takes all the responsibility he deserves" and called on people to "support him and his family." Later on Sunday, Ackman added that he was "not saying he should be exempted from responsibility."

Investor Gavin Baker argued on Monday that many venture capitalists are "patriotic Americans" who believe Huang's policy ideas will help the United States win in the competition with China. He wrote, "If Huang Renxun falls, it will be a disaster for the United States, but it will be a great gift to China."

"100% agree," Jason Calacanis replied. He is one of the hosts of the popular podcast All-In. The show is co-hosted by a group of venture capitalists, including David Sacks, President Trump’s former director of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.