Jensen Huang has the air of the late Steve Jobs about him.
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Huang → have → him
I have interviewed both, and the up-close charisma - and occasionally scratchy genius - is shared.
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charisma → interview → both
Both sported a signature item of black clothing, although Huang opts for a leather jacket rather than the Apple founder's turtle neck.
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Huang → sport → jacket
However, Huang, who is now being investigated over an affair with an alleged Chinese spy, is far important to the future of the world order than Jobs.
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who → investigate → Jobs
Everything you have heard about Artificial Intelligence (AI) over the past few months - good, bad, revolutionary and catastrophic - is dependent on having the most powerful frontier AI models.
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you → hear → models
In turn they depend on the most powerful microchips, and for years that has been this very company, Nvidia, led by Huang, and his technology rooted in repurposed games graphics and the manufacturing prowess of Taiwan.
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that → depend → Taiwan
Names such as Gracehopper, Vera and Rubin mean almost nothing to the public, but are the names of chips powering the creation of AI models transforming the world.
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Names → mean → world
I met Huang as he held court with reporters and offered words of encouragement for the UK's tech future during US President Donald Trump's state visit to the UK in September last year.
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he → meet → September
It was also right in the middle of his attempts to get Trump to lift export bans to China of some of the highest performing AI chips, specifically the H200.
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Trump → get → chips
An export ban on a less powerful chip had already been lifted.
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ban → lift → chip
He was, I suggested to him, one of the few people who could walk into the White House to meet Trump, and a few days later meet President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
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who → suggest → Beijing
He made no secret of his views, nor his assessment that he had persuaded Trump of his case.
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he → make → case
He wants America to win and and President Xi wants China to win, and it's possible for both of them too.
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it → want → them
He is probably the only person in the world that could have spoken that sentence with the authority that he might have heard personally from both these superpower leaders.
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he → speak → leaders
Differing views on security risks
However, his view about "zero-sum game" is not backed by many in national security circles.
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view → back → circles
Their view is that the race to the most advanced forms of AI is entirely zero sum, and requires the West - and the US in particular - to take critical action to hold back Chinese advancement.
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race → require → advancement
The country that creates the most powerful AI systems, from the most powerful chips, will win, in terms of scientific development, of cracking encryption, economic growth and cyber-weapons.
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that → create → encryption
He made a further argument: Far from being a national security challenge, it was, in fact, better for the US that the world "including China" became dependent on US systems, what they called the "American tech stack", with Nvidia chips at its core.
Huang then went even further than that, saying that President Trump "is very clear-eyed" about the idea that "this computing technology is not a national security concern".
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technology → make → idea
He told me "any military is smart enough to build their military on top of their own indigenous technology, and not rely on an adversary to build their technology, build their military capability".
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military → tell → capability
What does this show us?
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this → show → us
At that time, which is the same moment now independently investigated over national security concerns and alleged Chinese espionage, Huang was making clear public arguments to lift export bans, and seemed to have a clear idea of President Trump's views.
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Huang → investigate → views
More than that, he was also disputing the idea that his technology, in China's hands, was any type of national security concern.
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technology → dispute → concern
Even if the boom turned to bust, Nvidia is still expected to remain in rude health.
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Nvidia → turn → health
It has actual hard revenues of about $400bn this year.
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It → have → 400bn
Monday's drop of about 4% of its value reflects new and extraordinary risks at this junction of tech and global politics, but the chipmaker is still worth well over $4 trillion.
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chipmaker → reflect → tech
The Aporia
