Nvidia: How does a 'very respected leader' fall from grace?

Zahra Shah is a responsible AI frontier tech expert and joins me now. Just explain, what is a responsible AI frontier tech expert? What does that mean you are specialising in? Good morning to you. Good morning, Nick. Thank you for having me. Responsible AI basically means that you use AI in a responsible manner to benefit people and not to harm people. How does the world of AI, prior to his unfortunate relationships, how did the world of AI view Jensen Huang? He was actually viewed as a very respected leader of, you know, one of the most important AI supply chain companies. It basically supplies the AI infrastructure, the chips, to more than 60% of the global market. And he was credited with founding this company and leading it to become one of the world's most successful companies. Did he have to go, Zahra? So I do not have, you know, we don't have actually verified information. We just have a lot of rumours about what has actually really happened. What do you mean? But he has admitted to an affair outside of his marriage. You're right. The number is a three. He hasn't admitted a three, but he has admitted to being unfaithful to his wife and his children, unfaithful to his wife. Why? And it seems that there's some governance failures at this organisation as well. Well, the board. I did not seem to have somebody who has expertise in national security concerns, because the main issue is around national security, where it's considered that his misconduct can be largely, hugely damaging for this company that so many people across the world rely on. Since it's a very important sort of contributor in terms of the AI infrastructure, And we're talking about a trillion-dollar company, a man who's made $150 billion himself. How crucial was he? He was a person who founded this company, and he was very, very crucial to this company. What was it? What is his skill set, if I was to drill down on that? He was somebody who was able to show relentless determination to improve a company that started out initially within gaming, and then he pivoted it towards AI. And with the advent of ChatGPT, really, that's when The chips became a crucial part of AI infrastructure. Grateful for your time, Zahra Shah. Thank you. You're a responsible AI expert. Thanks for your importance to that. Well, the chips are down now. Let's bring to the conversation Amanda Coleman, who is a crisis communications consultant, has her firm Amanda Coleman Comms Limited. Thanks for coming on. Amanda, where did it all go wrong for Jensen? I mean, this is much more than just a personal infidelity. I think, you know, the question of should he go is much wider. And, you know, we've got things like the alleged foreign intelligence links, expert control violations, behaviour with other members of staff as well. So I think it's a much broader position. The challenge you've got is... Why does it matter? I get the possible espionage. That is on a different plane. OK, and that is potentially a national security issue in the United States. But and I'm not supporting it, but a powerful man has a couple of relationships outside of his marriage. Why does that mean he's toppled from the company he effectively set up? I mean, to be honest, I think it's much wider than that, because there's already reports of the board and various people considering lawsuits. So he's obviously realised that this has much bigger implications. Thank He's also a man that's created this impression of him, of himself, which has proved out not to be as it seems. We all do that, don't we? you We all big ourselves up in some way, particularly if you're public-facing, as it's called, don't we? very We all a bit, don't we? I don't know. Do we? Yeah, most folks do, don't they? The bottom line with this, though, it's a founder-led organisation. much. This is the problem. He is synonymous with NVIDIA. He's incredibly kind of connected and linked to it. So any behaviour that he makes is automatically linked to the company. I might suggest if you have a company called Amanda Coleman Comms Ltd, you and yourself are projecting yourself. We all do it in business, don't we? Yeah, but I mean, I would hope that anybody that hears me this morning will know that the same person that they will meet in the street, what you see with Jensen Wang is basically he's created a company, he's inextricably linked to it, so his behaviour is very much going to reflect on the way the company's run, the way it's governed, and the bigger implications about not just the infidelity. Grateful for your time. Have a good weekend, Amanda. Thank you. Amanda Coleman is a crisis communications consultant and Amanda Coleman Comms Limited. I think this is about a lot more than his sort of extramarital affairs. I think this has got more to do with the fact that China have access to this technology. I think it's got more to do with the fact that this guy Jensen was a proponent of open source models, which meant that. He's, you know, he's the guy supplying the chips and the companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic are the people who rely on his technology to retain their edge. And if a guy like him supports open source models and if he's happy with the chips going to China, then that means that those companies suddenly potentially lose their edge. So I just think there's a lot more. It's more about competitiveness and secret than it is about what's going on in the bedroom. Do you have? Any level of sympathy for him, Joshua, or did he get what he deserves? Oh, no sympathy at all. I mean, he's got billions and billions. No matter what happens, I think he's going to be just fine. I know that, sir, but I imagine he's going to have a mighty angry wife and he's going to have some pretty angry children. So, all right, you can count it in billions of dollars, but having your children scream at you is not going to be a pleasant experience, is it? No, no, no, I've got no sympathy for him. You know, he knew what he was doing. Okay. Excuse me, Joshua, thank you. Sue, if she is a spy, then it's serious. However, if not, there's no reason for him to go, says Sue. If every CEO was to resign due to extramarital affairs, there'd be none left. All right. Marilyn's in Chadwell Heath. Do you have any level of sympathy for Mr. Wang? Oh, hello. Good morning, Nick. Yes, I'm deep sympathy for someone earning trillions and billions. I don't think so. Now, first of all, he organised this company. He built this company. I see this as, not that I know anything about shares, whatever, I left school at 14, and basically I've got no knowledge of all this, but I believe it's all a ploy to let all the shares drop, everyone get in a panic, then all of a sudden it all comes back up to make them more trillions and billions. How does it... Sorry, I don't see how it benefits... Can you not see that? I think they had, at one point, they had nearly 20% of their value wiped off the market. Yes. I'm missing the hook. You know how shares drop, don't you? You know how they drop and they all come back and back. I can see that's going to happen. You know, I say, I've got no knowledge of shares, but you know how it goes. It all drops and it all tumbles in suddenly. Oh, people... Well, for them... I mean, to follow that logic, so they've lost more than a trillion pounds, so well over a trillion dollars in a month. Your suggestion is that they're all now going to be buying at the bottom, is this is what you're saying, I think, and watch it come back up. It picks up, yes. You know, see what happens then. See what happens. Any sympathy for him, any sympathy for his wife? Oh, not really with someone earning all that money, come on. Isn't it funny? Okay, thank you, Marilyn. Isn't it funny? What is the price, then, at which your sympathy ends? Okay? So, somebody gets fired and they're on, I don't know, £25,000 a year. Oh, that's appalling. Someone gets fired and they've got billions. Oh, it doesn't matter. He's got all the money in the bank. All the money in the world.