The accelerated decline of 'AI Empire Emperor' Jensen Huang... Scandal poet ousted after four days

On the 12th (local time), former NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, who was the emperor of the world's artificial intelligence (AI) empire, was finally kicked out of the company he founded and built for 33 years.

It has been exactly four days since he admitted to having an affair with Alice Huang (Chinese name Huang Le), who is suspected of being a Chinese spy. Although he quickly dominated the global market with AI accelerators and built an exclusive ecosystem, his ouster came in an instant.

Former CEO Hwang's retirement comes two weeks after the New York Times (NYT) reported on the 29th of last month that Alice Huang (Chinese name Huang Le), a Chinese woman, had been identified as a Chinese spy.

NVIDIA explained the relationship between former CEO Hwang and Alice Hwang as a "business meeting with a customer," but eventually admitted to the affair on the 8th after the Financial Times (FT) reported that the U.S. intelligence agency was viewing the two as a romantic relationship and social network service (SNS) evidence was also revealed.

Up until then, he had shown his determination to maintain his position as CEO, but he eventually resigned after additional extramarital relationships with female executives reporting to him were revealed.

In a report titled "Where did he find the time," Stacey Lasgone, an analyst at financial research firm Bernstein, predicted that more suspicions would be raised about former CEO Hwang in the future, citing the proverb "If you find two ants in the kitchen, don't assume that's all."

The origins of this incident date back two years.

In 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) discovered that Megaspeed, a new data center company, was purchasing large quantities of Nvidia chips.

At the time, investigators visited Megaspeed's subsidiary in Malaysia and saw piles of new Nvidia equipment without even opening the packaging.

NVIDIA's AI chips are usually installed on data center servers immediately upon receipt to prevent smuggling, and NVIDIA is also known to confirm that the chips are installed on servers.

In such a situation, it is presumed that the sight of a large number of unused Nvidia chips remaining would have been very suspicious.

The suspicion that Alice Hwang, a high-ranking executive at Megaspeed, was smuggling Nvidia chips into China through her friendship with former CEO Hwang became known to the public through a NYT report in October last year. However, until then, there was no mention of the two being in a romantic relationship.

Intelligence authorities such as the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Security Agency (NSA) began electronic surveillance of Alice Huang, and as intelligence was obtained that Alice Huang was in a romantic relationship with former CEO Hwang and was a spy for the Chinese intelligence agency, the incident turned into a huge national security scandal.

Intelligence authorities believe that Alice Huang was a spy captured by China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) and attempted to approach former CEO Hwang to learn about Nvidia's core secrets and the U.S. administration's China policy.

The close relationship between the two was also revealed in local media and social networking services (SNS).

In June 2024, Alice Huang was captured drinking whiskey sitting next to former CEO Hwang at a bar in Taipei, Taiwan, and in May of last year, she was filmed hugging his waist or kissing his cheek at a restaurant.

It is known that Alice Hwang actively posted photos taken with former CEO Hwang on her social media, as if to show off their relationship.

U.S. intelligence officials reported this to the administration, including President Donald Trump, but President Trump reportedly did not react in any way.

In particular, President Trump is said to have taken former CEO Hwang from Alaska to China on Air Force One even though he was briefed on this again during his visit to China in May.

Alice Huang left Singapore and returned to China after Singapore authorities began an investigation into the Megaspeed allegations and was summoned for questioning, and appears not to have been seen in public since.

However, Bloomberg News cited sources and reported that Alice Huang is currently staying in Beijing under the surveillance of Chinese security authorities.

Nvidia signed a business contract with a public relations company called ‘Heller’ in October last year.

The company's founder, Lisa Heller, is also known as a resolver of celebrities' sexual misconduct allegations and privacy controversies.

Heller is a company that also handles general corporate public relations, but because it coincides with the NYT's report from October last year, some are speculating that CEO Hwang hired Heller to cover up the scandal with Alice Hwang.

Last August, former CEO Hwang admitted to an extramarital affair, apologized, and sent a message saying, "We will restore trust," but he has remained silent since then in the process leading to his resignation.