The Guardian view on Jensen Huang’s affair: why did Trump ignore the warnings? | Editorial
When Donald Trump was briefed about the Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang’s liaisons with Alice Huang, he took no action.
Key points
- Such was his sway with Mr Trump that the White House scrapped Biden-era global AI chip restrictions and then permitted sales of Nvidia’s prized H200 processors to Chinese customers.
- As tech giants scrambled for the firm’s graphics processing units (GPUs), Mr Huang sold the picks and shovels for the AI gold rush – and amassed a $160bn fortune.
- One of the most powerful figures in the AI revolution admitted to having an affair with a Chinese businesswomen said to have passed intelligence to Beijing.
The AI chip boss’s actions raise urgent questions about corporate influence, national security and the US president’s willingness to listen to intelligence warnings It could be the plot of a spy thriller.
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- When China joined the race for tech supremacy, Nvidia’s microchips became a national security issue.
- Thirty months later, Nvidia was effectively banned from selling to Beijing.
- Nvidia became the cornerstone of AI by supplying brute computing power.
- In October 2022, the US slapped export controls on GPU sales to China.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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