Tech allies rally behind Jensen Huang, calling him vital in AI race

SAN FRANCISCO – Within hours of Jensen Huang’s admission on Nov 8 that he had been unfaithful to his wife, some of Silicon Valley’s most influential investors closed ranks around him.Their messages, delivered mostly on social media, were consistent. Huang’s relationship with a woman identified by US officials as a Chinese spy was a personal failing. Losing the Nvidia chief executive, they argued, would be a far bigger blow to the country, and America could not win the artificial intelligence race without him.“Jensen is one of the greatest entrepreneurs of this generation,” Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, wrote in a post on the afternoon of Nov 8. He said that Huang “did something incredibly dumb” and that it was bad for America, “but my guess is there was no bad intention”.He concluded that Huang is “irreplaceable for America’s AI leadership”.About an hour later, Elon Musk quoted the post and added: “I agree.”The show of loyalty reflects Huang’s rarefied standing in Silicon Valley. In the three decades since he co-founded Nvidia, he has gone from running a maker of video game graphics cards to presiding over the company at the centre of the AI boom, now one of the world’s most valuable companies.Nvidia’s chips are the scarce resource every AI company needs, a position that makes Huang something of a kingmaker. Decisions about who gets his products, and how many, can shape which start-ups and tech giants pull ahead. Nvidia’s finances are also deeply intertwined with other leading AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic.(China has rejected the espionage claims. Alice Huang, the Chinese executive accused of spying for Beijing, has not responded to requests for comment.)Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager, called Jensen Huang “an incredible human” who took “full responsibility as he should” and urged people to “support him and his family”. Later on Nov 8, Ackman added that he was “not suggesting he gets a free pass”.On Nov 9, investor Gavin Baker argued that many venture capitalists were “patriotic Americans” who believed Huang’s policy views served the country against China. He wrote that it would be “a disaster for America – and a gift to China – if Jensen goes down”.“100% in agreement,” replied Jason Calacanis, a host of the “All-In” podcast, which is a popular podcast hosted by a group of venture capitalists including David Sacks, President Donald Trump’s former AI and crypto czar.Antonio Gracias, founder of Valor Equity Partners and a long-time associate of Musk, agreed on Nov 10: “America would not be ahead in the AI race without Jensen. He clearly made a mistake. One mistake does not erase a lifetime of leadership.”The “All-In” hosts have been close to Huang. During an appearance onstage with the podcast’s hosts in September, Huang took a phone call from Trump.Trump, too, has stood by Huang.“I really believe him,” he said on Nov 9, recalling a conversation when Huang told him he did not know that Alice Huang was a spy. The New York Times has reported that Trump was briefed a year ago about intelligence showing that she was an operative for the Chinese government. Trump on Nov 10 demurred when asked whether he received the briefing in 2025.Huang has been among Washington’s most forceful voices against cutting China off from American chips, and has been an ally of Trump since his return to office. That, Calacanis acknowledged, makes him and his company “a critical target, and we need to protect them both”.In Congress, the Republican leaders of three influential House committees have asked Huang to appear for a closed-door briefing on his interactions with Alice Huang.The Times reported in October that US officials had concluded that Alice Huang, a former executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore company that bought billions of dollars of Nvidia chips, had been recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security.Nvidia’s board has opened an investigation and said it has no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised. Beijing dismissed the allegations as smears. NYTIMESThis article originally appeared in The New York Times.