Opinion: The Fall of the A.I. King and the Cost of Overconfidence

A personal scandal with wider stakes

The writer says the changes driven by artificial intelligence owe much to Jensen Huang and Nvidia’s equipment. But the essay frames Huang’s troubles as a story of hubris rather than a technology story.

It raises Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, an executive who managed a Singapore-based company that owns data centers in Southeast Asia. Those facilities are suspected of helping Chinese A.I. developers bypass U.S. restrictions on Nvidia equipment.

The Information recently reported that the centers served as a way station for the illicit movement of about $7 billion in equipment into China. The writer says U.S. intelligence captured evidence of a romantic relationship between the two, and argues Huang likely understood what was happening.

Silence inside Nvidia

The writer says rumors of Huang’s infidelities began circulating earlier in the year but were difficult to confirm. The essay describes a culture of silence at Nvidia that made it hard to investigate.

The writer recalls hearing subordinates laugh deferentially when Huang was present and mutter after he left. The essay says government intelligence and reporters at the newspaper eventually broke through that silence, and predicts more women may come forward.

The image of humility

When the writer met Huang in 2023, Huang and his handlers were promoting an image of him as humble. In their conversations, Huang redirected credit to employees and executives, the writer says.

The essay also recounts Huang’s friendliness toward service workers and his stories about once working as a dishwasher. At breakfast at Denny’s, he left a waitress a $1,000 tip in hundred-dollar bills, the writer says, without drawing attention to it.