'Such an extraordinary story': What we know so far about Nvidia spying claims

For more on this, France 24's international affairs editor, Philip Turrell, is with me on set now to break it all down. Hi, Philip. So no matter how you see it, this seriously undermines Jensen Huang's credibility. What more do we know about these allegations? This is just such an extraordinary story coming right now at a time when tech businesses are shuddering as a result of the midterm elections in the United States. Just to give you some figures of the enormity of it all, 4.5 Trillion dollars is how much NVIDIA is worth. It's the second biggest company in the world after Apple. And Jensen Huang himself is worth $162 billion. He's the CEO and the founder of the company. So what this is all about is him basically having a premarital or an extramarital affair with this Chinese executive called Alice Huang. No relative. To him, although they have the same family name, it could all have stopped there. But the problem is that Alice Huang works for or worked for a company called Megaspeed between March and November 2023, which is a Singapore based data center. And they believe, the two of them during this affair, maybe to have exchanged secret information. And that is why this has become so important. And the other thing which I think is important on the line here is that Jensen Wang has always had this squeaky clean image as the perfect family man. He's married to the same woman since 1985. Thank you very much. She's called Laurie Mills. They met at Oregon State University. They've got two children. And he was a big step stable force within Nvidia. So this has come as a huge shock for the company. As you mentioned before, its shares have tumbled today by 8%. Many are raising the question about what is going to happen next. There is an inquiry taking place, what this is all going to reveal in the long run. So speaking of what this will reveal in the long run, no matter the outcome, I mean, what is the fallout likely to be? Right, well, first of all, that 4% or 8% in the share value, NVIDIA says it's not worried about what has happened. It's putting a brave face on it all. I think there are questions, you know, did they or didn't they exchange information? Did he hand over information to Alice Huang without knowing it? Was she handing this information over to the Chinese? Was she spying for the Chinese? And if so, what information was that the Chinese have got hold of? Remember that Donald Trump, even in that interview that he gave to CBS, Yes, we're saying that he wants Wanted the United States to stay one step ahead of the Chinese when it came to artificial intelligence. Is this going to compromise that by some kind of data concerning artificial intelligence having been given to the Chinese without the Americans knowing about it? That's why there's this inquiry. That is a much more worrying development for Jensen Huang. The other question is. Well, what will happen to him? Is he going to be able to hold on to his position as CEO of the company? He's more or less identified automatically with NVIDIA. Every time that one talks about that company, the name of Jensen Huang springs to mind. He is very friendly with Donald Trump, with other heads of tech industry in the United States. So it's difficult to know what would happen to him if all of this proves that there has been a data leak. And also, the other question is, who on earth could possibly replace him? So all of these questions are being raised right now. I think we'll have to wait to see how all this is going to play out in the next few days.