Nvidia Chief Seen As Target of Chinese Spy Plot (cnbc.com) 23
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: American spy agencies had gathered striking intelligence. A top executive at a Singapore-based data center company was under scrutiny for possibly steering advanced Nvidia A.I. chips to China. And now American officials had concluded that she was a Chinese intelligence asset (source paywalled; alternative source), funneling information to Beijing. But what came next was even more alarming. Surveillance of the executive, Alice Huang or Huang Le, a Chinese citizen, revealed that she had developed a close relationship with Jensen Huang, Nvidia's chief executive.
For years, Washington has worked to deny China the technology needed to match or surpass the United States in the intense global competition for superiority in artificial intelligence. The discovery that Beijing was getting reports from someone with direct access to Mr. Huang, one of the most powerful figures in the A.I. revolution as well as an influential ally of President Trump's, set off alarms at the White House. Roughly a year ago, Mr. Trump was briefed about the intelligence findings, which have not been previously reported, and chose not to do anything with the information. Mr. Trump has been wary of disrupting Nvidia's chip sales, which are helping to drive the economy and the stock market, and of further complicating the trading relationship with China.
This account is based on interviews with people briefed on the surveillance, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the findings are drawn from classified intelligence, as well as other officials and industry executives and analysts. American officials already suspected that Ms. Huang was helping China evade constraints on its ability to gain access to advanced A.I. chips. But the revelation that she was feeding information directly to Beijing raised more troubling possibilities, including that Mr. Huang had insights into Mr. Trump's thinking on an issue of vital importance to both nations, one likely to come up when the president visits China next month. And it left questions about whether she could be gleaning information about Nvidia, which as much as any company accounts for the lead the United States has maintained in developing cutting-edge A.I. models. The surveillance of Ms. Huang continues, they said, and companies that have been affiliated with her continued this year to purchase Nvidia chips. Nvidia said in a statement: "Jensen's interactions with Ms. Huang are not unusual or unexpected. Meetings with customers are part of a CEO's job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year." Nvidia is "confident that if the U.S. government believes that any person is a threat to American industry, it would let us know." Customers like Megaspeed, the company that employed Ms. Huang, "receive ordinary business information -- not sensitive Nvidia trade secrets -- and zero information relevant to national security," the company added.
In a statement to The New York Times, Megaspeed said that its "current leadership" takes the matter "extremely seriously and is committed to getting to the facts behind these allegations." It added that "outside counsel has been retained to conduct a thorough internal investigation and has notified the U.S. government that we are fully committed to cooperating."
For years, Washington has worked to deny China the technology needed to match or surpass the United States in the intense global competition for superiority in artificial intelligence. The discovery that Beijing was getting reports from someone with direct access to Mr. Huang, one of the most powerful figures in the A.I. revolution as well as an influential ally of President Trump's, set off alarms at the White House. Roughly a year ago, Mr. Trump was briefed about the intelligence findings, which have not been previously reported, and chose not to do anything with the information. Mr. Trump has been wary of disrupting Nvidia's chip sales, which are helping to drive the economy and the stock market, and of further complicating the trading relationship with China.
This account is based on interviews with people briefed on the surveillance, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the findings are drawn from classified intelligence, as well as other officials and industry executives and analysts. American officials already suspected that Ms. Huang was helping China evade constraints on its ability to gain access to advanced A.I. chips. But the revelation that she was feeding information directly to Beijing raised more troubling possibilities, including that Mr. Huang had insights into Mr. Trump's thinking on an issue of vital importance to both nations, one likely to come up when the president visits China next month. And it left questions about whether she could be gleaning information about Nvidia, which as much as any company accounts for the lead the United States has maintained in developing cutting-edge A.I. models. The surveillance of Ms. Huang continues, they said, and companies that have been affiliated with her continued this year to purchase Nvidia chips. Nvidia said in a statement: "Jensen's interactions with Ms. Huang are not unusual or unexpected. Meetings with customers are part of a CEO's job; Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year." Nvidia is "confident that if the U.S. government believes that any person is a threat to American industry, it would let us know." Customers like Megaspeed, the company that employed Ms. Huang, "receive ordinary business information -- not sensitive Nvidia trade secrets -- and zero information relevant to national security," the company added.
In a statement to The New York Times, Megaspeed said that its "current leadership" takes the matter "extremely seriously and is committed to getting to the facts behind these allegations." It added that "outside counsel has been retained to conduct a thorough internal investigation and has notified the U.S. government that we are fully committed to cooperating."
Of course he is (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
What's with the black leather jacket he always wears? Does he think he's the Fonz? Or a Ramone?
Re: (Score:2)
Not the worst billionaire fashion choice.
Re:Of course he is (Score:5, Interesting)
Essentially, his wife and daughter made the choice [firstpost.com]:
Huang staple black jackets have also been talked about in the previous years. In most of the interviews, just like this one, he has seen talking about these jackets and associate them to his wife. He says that these jackets are often bought buy his wife, Lori Huang.
Last year, in an interview with the NYT, he confirmed that he has been dressing up the same for almost 20 years, and "all thanks to my wife and daughter."
For a bit more on the subject [msn.com]:
The tale resurfaced in a recent clip from an interview with Money Focus, where the 62-year-old CEO explained the jacket's true origin. "This is what my wife bought for me, and this is what I'm wearing," Huang said with a grin, patting the familiar leather on his shoulders. It was never intended as a branding strategy. It was a solution to a lifelong problem: he hates shopping and finds most clothes uncomfortable. "I do zero percent of my own shopping," he joked. His wife, Lori Mills Huang, stepped in long ago and has chosen his wardrobe ever since. She has known him since he was seventeen, after all.
Re: (Score:2)
It's his Jobsian flair. The black mock turtleneck would be copying.
I wanted to read it as "Nvidia chef" (Score:2)
...And it was a Hong-Kong action movie about a former martial artist that is now working as a chef to pay for his accidents for a big corporation that saves the day (tropesmaxxing).
NYT Style guide (Score:1)
The proper term is now " Super Intelligence
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Super-Human InTelligence
One Degree of Separation (Score:2)
Re: dating someone with the same last name (Score:1)
Not really a taboo unless you're related.
Be honest: is "same last name" why mom and dad told you not to date your cousin and you took it at face value ever since?
Honey pot (Score:2)
It smells like the standard honey pot. Pretty girl positioned to catch his eye while he is overseas on business and she strikes it up with him. A few more meets, some dinner engagements, and then she is travelling around with him. Introducing him to business opportunities and laying on the flattery. If the relationship ever gets into blowjob territory or beyond he is doomed, China will have him on a blackmail hook he can never shake.
Re: (Score:1)
If the relationship ever gets into blowjob territory or beyond he is doomed
I doubt that. This isn't the nifty fifties and we don't moral panic over blowjobs anymore. Clinton was poking girls with cigars in the Whitehouse and the Bezos beams dick pics around to women. Jenson could handwave this, and she can't "Me Too" him because she's a spy that did it for her government.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Honey pot (Score:1)
Probably quite a bit less if you also deduct the cosmetic surgery for the new one.
Re: (Score:2)
"don't moral panic over blowjobs anymore", I guess it would depend on how his wife feels about it rather than what you think.
Re: (Score:3)
=If the relationship ever gets into blowjob territory or beyond he is doomed, China will have him on a blackmail hook he can never shake.
He's probably more worried about his wife gutting him.
Conflating (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like it is much more than assumptions seeing as how "American officials had concluded that she was a Chinese intelligence asset".
I call total hokum (Score:2)