For most people, affairs of the heart remain private. But for Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of Nvidia, a personal relationship has become a matter of public scrutiny with potential global consequences. Huang is being investigated over his ties to an alleged Chinese spy and whether he disclosed confidential intellectual property, a saga that could reshape the AI landscape.
Nvidia designs the world's most powerful chips and has evolved into an AI infrastructure behemoth, with ventures spanning robotics and autonomous driving. Its products power AI systems worldwide, and the company has invested in numerous AI startups across Europe and beyond. The chips have also become a critical front in the US-China technological rivalry, with Washington restricting their export to Beijing. Huang had lobbied to relax those rules.
"Nvidia is kind of at the base of [the AI ecosystem]," said Carmem Domingues, a former White House Senior AI Advisor to the Biden administration. "All the AI companies either owe money to NVIDIA and/or depend on them to actually run the models and continue developing and growing their businesses," she told European Pulse.
A Leadership Vacuum?
As Nvidia's board reportedly weighs Huang's future, the question of succession looms large. Huang founded the company three decades ago and has become its public face, drawing packed audiences at keynotes and commanding a celebrity-like following. But who could step in?
Domingues believes "there's not someone who is sort of prepped and ready to go next in line." While Huang's two children are involved with the company, "it's unclear what exactly their roles are or how ready they would be to take over," and any other internal candidate seems "unlikely," she added. Even if Huang were removed, she suspects he might be retained in some advisory capacity, which would serve as "in a way quote-unquote enough of a punishment for any potential wrongdoing."
News of the board's deliberations sent Nvidia shares down about 8% in trading. The interconnected nature of the AI economy means a stumble at Nvidia could have cascading effects. "All the AI companies… have this sort of roundabout funding of each other... So everything is very intertwined and disastrous in many ways. And one falling can bring down a lot," Domingues warned, drawing parallels to the 2008 financial crisis when Lehman Brothers collapsed.
"Would they [Nvidia] protect him [Huang] in the name of not letting the 'house of cards' fall down?... So is Jensen, in a way, too big to fail himself? In a way. Yes," she said.
Bubble Concerns and Market Jitters
Even before the Huang news, the AI sector was showing signs of strain. The recent US midterm elections reflected a backlash against data centres and AI, and investors are growing wary of valuations detached from fundamentals. Sheikha Maytha Bint Maktoum, an investor and founder of mental health company MindFriend, noted that data centres are struggling with infrastructure and power grid limitations. "No book I have read could have prepared me to see a day where a company is completely built on something that could vanish tomorrow," she said, pointing to startups with no revenue yet valued at billions.
Still, she believes any financial disruption for Nvidia would be "temporary," given the company's decades-long infrastructure and ecosystem strength.
China's Long Game
In the West, the Huang story is often framed as a market stability issue. But in China, the narrative is different. Chinese companies have long sought to reduce reliance on American chips, and episodes like this reinforce that instinct. Isabel Zhu of Xynova, a Chinese company making robotic hands, told European Pulse at the Web Summit in Lisbon: "Usually Chinese companies want to be more independent, not rely on the supplies... if you have to rely on American companies for supply, then it’s a big bottleneck." She noted that Huawei and others are "working so hard" to develop domestic chips, advocating themselves as "the Nvidia in China."
For Domingues, the investigation won't alter the fundamental dynamics of the AI race. The US AI Action Plan of 2025 is explicitly titled "Winning the AI Race," and the rivalry was already intense. The scandal, she argues, is unlikely to change that trajectory.
As the saga unfolds, the tech world watches closely. For related coverage, see Nvidia's share slide and Trump's defense of Huang. The implications for Europe, where Nvidia has significant investments, remain to be seen.
