Huang presses China chip access while opposing new AI rules

Higgins says scandal may test whether AI boom needs Huang

Higgins wrote that Huang’s power had been on full display in recent months. When it came to safety concerns, Huang became a leading voice in opposing calls for new regulations that AI accelerationists say could slow development. Huang rallied the industry against efforts to restrict open-source AI, a technology China is rapidly developing that some researchers warn could pose security risks. “The world needs both frontier closed models and frontier open models,” he posted in his debut appearance on X in July. Nvidia is also developing open-source models.

Then in September, Higgins wrote, Huang emerged again with a full-court press to counter growing calls for regulations after Anthropic employees gained mainstream attention for raising concerns about the technology ending humanity. “Safety is an engineering problem,” Huang said.

Behind the scenes, Higgins wrote, Huang has aggressively pushed to allow his chips to be sold in China and for the U.S. to reverse certain export restrictions. “I did my best to inform the policymakers in the United States of the importance of engaging the Chinese markets and making sure that we serve that market for as long as we can. I think we made a mistake and this mistake is hard to unwind,” Huang told Bloomberg News in an interview recorded last month and released this week. “Although we compete against China they are not our enemies,” he added.

Higgins wrote that perhaps Huang’s position as AI’s biggest spokesman was best on display late this summer, amid what the columnist described as growing populist pushback to AI. By Higgins’s account, the tech industry had been caught off guard by growing public protests around the physical manifestation of AI technology — whether it was the construction of AI data centers or use of Flock cameras. In response, according to the column, those in tech and the White House suggested AI opponents were being duped by foreign powers, including China. Higgins wrote that President Trump and Huang talked about what Higgins called the growing doomerism during an appearance at the “All-In Podcast” conference, the president by telephone and the CEO on stage. At various points, according to Higgins’s account, Trump suggested concerns around AI were a hoax pushed by China aimed at slowing progress. “You’re right, we’re not going to let that happen, sir,” Huang said.

Higgins recalled a simpler time, just a few weeks ago, when the supposed China dupes were those Americans raising concerns about AI — not the guy leading the industry’s charge. Back then, Jensen Huang was “Mr. Cool with a black leather jacket and megaphone of support for artificial intelligence.” As co-founder of Nvidia, whose shares trade as NVDA and were down 5.47%, he led one of the most valuable companies in the world thanks to his bet on his chips powering the development of the rapidly developing technology.

Huang’s judgment, Higgins wrote, was an underpinning of the AI boom — the enthusiasm he stoked and the vision of the future he sold, not just to investors but the White House and other world leaders. By his account, other American CEOs wanted to be him — or at least curry favor with him in hopes of landing make-or-break shipments of GPUs — while women, apparently, wanted to be with him. Higgins also recalled that, during the peak of the AI exuberance, Huang autographed an adoring female fan’s chest at a trade show; it felt lighthearted in the moment, he wrote, but in hindsight two years later perhaps not the best judgment.

Higgins wrote that what Huang has been championing is “the next industrial revolution,” and described him as the face of a better future, a soothe for an uncertain time. The build-out of U.S. data centers, many of which require Nvidia chips, is seen as critical to the U.S. economy. Yet, Higgins wrote, AI worries along with inflation concerns helped fuel Democratic Party victories in midterm elections, flipping the control of Congress come January.

Now, Higgins wrote, the chip guy’s judgment is all anyone wants to talk about, after Huang admitted Sunday to an extramarital affair. The woman at the center of the controversy, who was a top executive at Nvidia customer Megaspeed International, is suspected of spying for China. The People’s Republic of China has denied the accusations.

Huang’s future as CEO of Nvidia is in question. Shares fell Monday and continued their slide Tuesday. The company’s board, which said it has confidence in its CEO, is investigating his actions. Higgins wrote that Huang seems also to have violated his company’s own conflicts-of-interest policy. “We avoid situations where our actions might create a conflict—actual or potential—between our personal gain and our obligations to Nvidia,” the company says on its website. The company warns that personal relationships could create such conflicts.

And he is being called to Congress to testify. Many want to know what he knew about Megaspeed’s efforts to acquire Nvidia chips to help China in potential violation of U.S. export restrictions. “Recent reports raise significant national-security concerns regarding the PRC’s access to sensitive U.S. technology and information,” a letter Monday to Huang from the chairmen of three House committees said.

Higgins wrote that Huang, 63 years old, isn’t the first CEO with embarrassing bedroom entanglements and may very well hang on to his job, and that these sorts of scandals always center around a leader’s judgment. He offered the case of a chief executive’s improper liaison at, say, McDonald’s as a contrast: potentially humiliating for those involved, with shareholders perhaps punished amid the disruption at the company, though ultimately the future of cheeseburgers isn’t at stake.

Higgins wrote that one of the biggest questions yet to be answered is whether this scandal will pop what many see as an overzealous AI investment bubble — a trigger that could ripple painfully through the 401(k)s and pension plans of many Americans.

He wrote that the danger now is that Huang’s own entanglement with China could very well do just that amid new investigations and calls for regulations, and that the industry could lose its loudest voice.

Yet, Higgins wrote, it also might be a good test. The episode is dangerous for the AI momentum, but if AI is a real revolution of industry — and not just a bubble pumped up by a “hype man in a leather jacket” — then it really shouldn’t matter if Huang is running Nvidia, or whether he has a voice at all.

There are so many questions yet to be answered, Higgins wrote: how much Huang knew about Megaspeed’s efforts, whether his relationship created a conflict under Nvidia’s policy, and what he will tell Congress. The board’s investigation was still underway, and Nvidia shares continued their decline Tuesday.