Rubio Warned Officials About Nvidia Chief’s Entanglement With Chinese Spy - the New York Times
Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, Julian E. Barnes, and Tripp Mickle, reporting for The New York Times (gift link): Mr. Rubio’s memo was circulated to administration officials with high-level security clearances ahead of a trip Mr. Trump took to China in May, the people briefed on the matter said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive material. Despite his status as an A.I.…
Senator Rubio warned administration officials of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's alleged entanglement with a Chinese spy prior to President Trump's May trip to China. Huang, a prominent figure in the AI industry and one of the world's most valuable company CEOs, was initially left off the list of invited executives for the trip. However, after media coverage exposed Huang's absence and Trump's request to include him at an Alaska layover, Huang was eventually invited.
The administration's concern about Huang's potential influence on Trump's lightened regulation of AI policy contributed to the memo's creation. Trump's social media post upon Huang's inclusion in the delegation was an attempt to emphasize the honor of having "the Great Jensen Huang" join him in China, where he would pressure President Xi to "open up" China for Nvidia's AI innovators.
When questioned about Huang's admission of his affair with a female executive, Trump expressed no regret for his initial decision not to invite Huang. He stated that Huang should remain as Nvidia's CEO, claiming that Huang was an "honorable guy" with an "excuse" for his indiscretion. Despite Trump's personal history of legal issues, his comments about Huang's potential guilt were dismissed with skepticism.
In recent years, Megaspeed, a company with minimal local presence, purchased $2 billion worth of Nvidia products for their data centers in Southeast Asia, which rent computing power to Alibaba, the Chinese internet giant. U.S. officials suspect Megaspeed's involvement in smuggling restricted advanced Nvidia chips into China, a situation that could damage both Nvidia and Huang's reputations.
Written by urgent.news from Daring Fireball's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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