In terms of corporate fallout, what's happened at Nvidia has been huge.
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happened → happen → Nvidia
The company, seen as the darling of the AI era, has lost hundreds of billions of dollars in market value since it was revealed that its chief executive Jensen Huang had an affair with a suspected Chinese spy.
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executive → see → spy
Nvidia and Mr Huang are now being sued, accused of defrauding shareholders by concealing the affair.
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Nvidia → sue → affair
Nvidia has both benefited from and brought about the global AI revolution.
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Nvidia → benefit → revolution
And, as CEOs go, few are as synonymous with a company as Jensen Huang.
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few → go → Huang
"Treating this simply as a sex scandal misses the point," technology strategist Josh Kennedy-White says.
"
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White → treat → point
The real issue is whether personal access to one of the world's most strategically important executives became a channel for intelligence gathering or influence.
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access → become → gathering
"
So how did we get here?
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we → get → ?
Born in Taiwan, Mr Huang moved to the US at the age of nine and at some point, he naturalised as a US citizen.
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he → bear → citizen
At 17, he attended university in Oregon where he met his wife Lori Mills, who was two years his senior.
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who → attend → wife
Both were studying electrical engineering and Mr Huang has previously recounted using the pick-up line: "Do you wanna see my homework?"
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you → study → homework
They had weekly study dates, became lab partners and, five years later, married.
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They → have → dates
In an interview with a magazine at his alma mater in 2013, he described how his wife's support has always been unconditional.
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support → describe → 2013
"Ever since I was 18, she was there believing in me and knowing I could do it.
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I → believe → it
Even when I had self doubts, she didn't," he said.
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he → have → doubts
The two went on to have two children, Spencer and Madison Huang, who both now hold executive roles at Nvidia.
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who → go → Nvidia
In 1993, at a diner in San Jose, Mr Huang met with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, fellow engineers he'd worked with in the chip industry since the late 1980s.
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he → meet → 1980s
There they came up with Nvidia, starting with just $40,000 in capital.
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they → come → capital
In order to incorporate the business, the three founders chucked in $200 a piece.
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founders → incorporate → 200
The founders believed the PC gaming market was set to grow and would need more powerful graphics processing.
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market → believe → processing
After a near business-ending initial failure, Nvidia invented what's regarded as the world's first Graphics Processing Unit in 1999.
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what → end → 1999
The chips could make advanced computer graphics allowing for advanced 3D environments in video games and perform huge numbers of calculations in parallel.
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chips → make → parallel
It wasn't long before developers realised their uses could go far beyond gaming.
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uses → realise → gaming
"We created the world's first programmable accelerator," Mr Huang said in 2023.
"And the benefit of an accelerator is whatever you designed it to do, it does it incredibly efficiently."
AI era begins
And so, the era of modern AI was born.
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era → create → AI
They're so hot, companies struggle to get their hands on them, and the metrics of Nvidia's growth are dizzying.
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metrics → struggle → growth
To give you a sense of some of the numbers: Its shares have increased some 477,000 per cent since listing in 1999; almost five-fold in the past five years.
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shares → give → years
For Mr Huang, who is estimated to own about 3.5 per cent of the company, his wealth has skyrocketed.
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wealth → estimate → company
According to Forbes, he was worth $2 billion in 2017 — and now, about $154 billion, putting him in the top 10 most wealthy people in the world.
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he → accord → world
Its website lists him as co-founder, president, chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors.
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website → list → directors
[He] clearly sets the long-term strategy and direction, and pulls most of the company's strings himself," Stacy Rasgon, a Bernstein analystsaid.
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He → set → strings
US-China chip war and the Trump factor
Nvidia, and Mr Huang, have walked a fine line balancing the demands of Washington and Beijing.
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Nvidia → walk → Washington
Nvidia is headquartered in California with the vast majority of its chips produced by the chipmaker TSMC in Taiwan, along with some production in the US and South Korea.
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majority → headquarter → US
The US restricted the exports of chips to China in 2022, citing it as an issue of national defence.
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US → restrict → defence
It's been a huge point of contention between the world's two superpowers with Beijing racing to develop its own semiconductor industry.
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Beijing → race → industry
Mr Huang, who is one of US President Donald Trump's closest allies in Silicon Valley, has tried to push the administration to loosen restrictions.
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who → try → restrictions
He's argued that American companies should be able to compete globally and that it would prevent China's chip industry developing too powerfully.
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industry → argue → ?
He's had some success.
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He → have → success
Earlier this year Washington gave the greenlight for Nvidia to sell its second-tier chip (the H200) to Chinese companies, so long as they could take a 25 per cent cut.
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they → give → cut
There have also been reports about Chinese companies illegally getting access to US chip technology through the backdoor.
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companies → get → backdoor
One company, for example, is a Singapore cloud computing firm Megaspeed which is being investigated by the US over suspicions it's helping get Nvidia AI chips into China.
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it → investigate → China
…and 16 more, not listed.
The Aporia
