Jen-Hsun Huang is as powerful as an AI central bank president. The affair storm may lead to the approaching bear market

[Compiled by Wei Guojin/Taipei Report] Huang Renxun, founder and CEO of Huida, is crucial to the overall discussion of artificial intelligence (AI) that supports the global market boom. On the 8th, after Huang admitted that he had an extramarital affair with a female entrepreneur identified by the United States as a Chinese spy, Huida's board of directors launched an investigation. Although Huang Renxun's future depends on the results of the investigation, this incident has shaken the entire AI field and may bring about an AI bear market.

Bloomberg columnist Ren Shuli pointed out in an article that Huida, with a market value of US$4.5 trillion, is not only the most valuable listed company in the AI ​​industry, but also uses its own credit to accelerate the construction of AI infrastructure. In the past three years, Huida has provided US$300 billion in financial support to customers, and also injected billions of US dollars into new cloud companies and other new companies.

Although Huang Renxun only holds 3.4% of Huida's shares, he is the actual helmsman and strategy maker of the company. He did not have a clear successor and established an informal organizational structure. Bernstein's research pointed out that there are about 60 senior executives who are directly under his command and are tasked with executing his decisions quickly. However, when the AI ​​"central bank president" himself is involved in sexual controversies, will Huida's funds continue to flow?

The article said that this will undoubtedly make things worse for new cloud companies that rent computing power to AI laboratories. Companies such as CoreWeave naturally turn to Huida when faced with the impact of soaring borrowing costs and closed financing channels. For example, Australia's Firmus Gird is negotiating further investment plans with Huida after canceling its Sydney initial public offering (IPO). However, the negotiations may now be suspended or entirely scrapped.

With Huang's authority under challenge, Huida's head of deal negotiations naturally took a more conservative stance and scaled back supplier financing to customers. Related financing has worsened Huida's credit profile. The cost of protecting Huida from defaulting on its debt has tripled this year, and spreads on Huida's corporate bonds have also widened.

As for the development of AI infrastructure in Asia, the main concern is that Huida has been forced to slow down its shipments to the region as it has come under closer scrutiny. The Chinese woman with whom Jen-Hsun Huang was rumored to have an extramarital affair is a senior executive of Megaspeed, a Singaporean company that has been building data centers in Southeast Asia and leasing computing power to Alibaba while opening a backdoor for China to obtain advanced Huida chips.

The article said that the eloquent Jen-Hsun Huang is a charismatic salesman who predicts the next trillion-dollar enterprise and promotes the Asian AI ecosystem. However, as his star halo is tarnished, "AI trading has become increasingly unstable, and a bear market is gradually approaching."