Jensen Huang has a ‘rockstar’ reputation in Taiwan. Will it survive now that he’s out of Nvidia?

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Jensen Huang's affairs might not dent his rockstar status in Taiwan. Allegations of Chinese espionage are another matter.

In Taiwan, Jensen Huang is more than a CEO. The Tainan-born Nvidia founder is a frequent visitor who dines with the island’s tech elite and draws fans wherever he goes.

On Thursday, Huang resigned from the top job at Nvidia after reports of two extramarital affairs, one with a woman U.S. intelligence officials reportedly believe is a Chinese intelligence asset.

Few places have more riding on Huang’s reputation than Taiwan, where TSMC, Foxconn and other suppliers form the backbone of Nvidia’s business and Huang is treated as a homegrown hero. Analysts there say Taiwanese are likely to forgive his personal failings. The allegations that Chinese intelligence may have exploited his relationships are another matter on an island that sees Beijing’s spying on its tech industry as a long-running national security threat.

Huang’s reputation is now in ruins in the U.S. following revelations that he had an extramarital affair with a woman whom U.S. intelligence officials believe to be a Chinese intelligence asset. Nvidia is also dogged by accusations that it facilitated Chinese access to its AI chips, which are subject to U.S. export controls.

Nvidia’s relationship with Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company, is now under scrutiny following a flurry of media reports about Jensen Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive. Several media reports allege that Megaspeed helped Chinese companies get access to Nvidia AI processors, potentially in violation of U.S. export controls. (Beijing denies Alice Huang is a spy; Megaspeed has also denied allegations that it’s involved in chip smuggling).

On Oct. 29, The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence officials believed Alice Huang to be feeding information to Beijing. On Nov. 8, Jensen Huang admitted that he’d had an extramarital affair, and Nvidia announced that it would conduct an independent investigation, adding that it had “no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were…

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