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After Jensen Huang row, Bezos, Gates and Musk's personal lives under scanner
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00:07good evening you're watching news track with me maria shakiel for years he has been the face of
00:12the artificial intelligence revolution the man who transformed nvidia into a global powerhouse
00:19turned computer chips into some of the world's most coveted commodities and emerged as one of
00:26the most powerful figures in the technology university but now after 33 years at the helm
00:32jensen huang's extraordinary journey at nvidia has come to an end three reported personal affairs
00:39allegations surrounding the diversion of american chips to china and growing national security
00:45concerns have put his leadership under an unprecedented spotlight and the exit of the
00:52man who came to symbolize the ai boom is sending shockwaves through the industry remember nvidia
00:59isn't just another technology company it is at the heart of the global ai race so if jensen huang is
01:06no longer at the helm what does that mean for nvidia what happens to the global ai race and can
01:13the ai
01:14revolution continue without the man who helped power it i'm going to take all these questions
01:20to the guests who will be joining me shortly but first up here's a report
01:26he built nvidia into the powerhouse of the artificial intelligence revolution turned computer chips into
01:33one of the world's most valuable commodities and became the most influential executive in the global ai
01:39industry
01:43but after 33 years at the top jensen huang is out ousted following revelations about multiple
01:49personal relationships one of which has now triggered serious questions about china
01:54american technology and national security and the fallout is no longer confined to nvidia's boardroom
02:04nvidia shares plunged as much as 14 percent after the news of jensen's ouster before recovering some ground
02:11closing thursday down 4.3 percent more than 500 billion dollars wiped off its market value since the
02:18scandal broke the selling spread to ai related companies including micron marvel and core weave
02:25as investors confronted a question that had long been overlooked can the world's most important ai chip
02:32maker thrive without the man who built it chief financial officer colette kress has been named interim ceo
02:39but her immediate challenge is much bigger than steadying nvidia's share price she must reassure
02:45for investors protect billions of dollars in ai investment in companies like open ai x ai
02:52and tropic intel ssi and convince customers that nvidia's technological dominance does not depend on one
02:59individual
03:04at the heart of the controversy is huang reported relationship with alice huang a former executive
03:10at singapore-based mega speed a major buyer of nvidia chips that has faced scrutiny over possible diversion
03:16of restricted american technology to china the justice department is examining potential export control
03:23violations while questions have also emerged about whether alice huang had links to chinese intelligence
03:30but american authorities have not yet established that she was a spy and both nvidia and mega speed have
03:37denied wrongdoing so you assume that doj learns that she is in fact a spy i'm not nobody said that
03:45i certainly haven't said that and i i don't all i said a minute ago and all that i think
03:50i will say
03:51is that of course doj is is investigator looking at it so i there's no there's no conclusions reached
03:56by the department of justice or by me or by director patel around who she is or is not i
04:02don't have
04:02concerns with the commerce department i i don't i we have a good relationship with the commerce department
04:06i've read some of the stories which you know are sourced or not sourced and so i don't have any
04:13that but no i don't have the answer to the question is no i don't have any i don't have
04:16any concerns
04:17the distinction is crucial because while the espionage allegations remain unproven the investigation
04:22into possible chip diversion could have consequences for the entire global ai supply chain
04:28is one gpu the political fallout is gathering pace in washington where democrats are demanding answers
04:36about whether sensitive american technology may have reached china and whether national security
04:42was compromised it was the right thing to do now we have to get to the bottom of whether america's
04:48national security has been compromised we need a classified briefing made available to members of
04:54congress as it relates to the nvidia situation and to the extent that our national security has been
05:02compromised the american people deserve answers and we're going to work to make sure that happens
05:09with congressional scrutiny expected to intensify nvidia now faces the prospect of tougher export
05:15restrictions more aggressive oversight and potential greater limitations on its access to the chinese
05:22market and that could also deliver a major blow to chinese ai developers many of whom still depend
05:28on american chips to power their most advanced systems meanwhile us president donald trump added his
05:36own unexpected twist to nvidia's succession drama publicly suggesting that former apple chief tim cook
05:42take over the chip maker calling both men legends trump's intervention has thrown another spotlight on a
05:49company already under intense political and investor scrutiny for long list nvidia the immediate priority is
05:58stability but the long-term challenge is whether it can preserve the business empire its dynamic founder and
06:05former ceo created including its closely interconnected investments customers and partnerships across the ai
06:12industry rivals amd intel and broadcom could see an opening while investors will be watching whether
06:20customers reconsider their dependence on nvidia and whether washington's next moves disrupt the global chip trade
06:30bureau report business today television and joining me now is ross feingold who is a asia political
06:39risk analyst we also have nsnapidai senior advocate of the supreme court and founder of cyber sati let me we
06:48also have richard i can see richard sanders also joining us he is former member of the u.s department
06:53of state's
06:54senior foreign service uh he is a foreign policy expert uh i'm going to begin with you ross what changes
07:03is between china and u.s now has jensen huang's departure fundamentally changed the equation now
07:13uh between u.s and china and is nvidia's china business now a national security liability for the united states
07:25well one thing to keep in mind is um actually in recent years the the legal channel
07:32for nvidia to sell its chips to china had all but evaporated first there were restrictions imposed by
07:41the united states this was followed by a partial relaxation by president trump but subsequent to
07:47president trump's relaxation china basically told the potential buyers within china we don't want you to
07:55buy nvidia chips now all that being said if we put aside the revenue opportunities or lost opportunities
08:04for nvidia there's certainly uh significant u.s china relations and competition issues
08:11that that are at stake here one it's very clear that chips were illegally transship to china
08:21and uh there are already people who are under indictment in different countries for engaging in those
08:27activities so that was a clear criminal violation of u.s law and the u.s government is pursuing that
08:35the other issue here which uh we simply don't know the answer to yet is what if any information mr
08:43huang may
08:43have shared with miss long about market outlook about his discussions with u.s government officials
08:50including potentially president trump and if he did and again we don't know that he did but if he did
08:57did
08:58he then share that information with the chinese government that we simply don't know either at the
09:04moment uh so there are a number of aspects that certainly require uh additional investigation now as
09:11far as when president trump meets president xi next week i don't think this topic will be in something
09:18that they discuss because ultimately uh president trump could only say we don't want you to violate u.s
09:25law by for example buying chips that are banned for export to china but ross given you say we don't
09:31do that even how donald trump is defending jensen huang it you know it's highly unlikely that he will not
09:40erase it with xi jinping let me bring in ns napinai ma'am when a ceo controls a company central
09:48to global
09:49ai infrastructure can a personal scandal become a national security threat and where does corporate
09:56responsibility begin so this is actually a very complicated question i'll try to simplify it as
10:05much as i can the first and foremost thing is unlike in india in the u.s fundamental rights are
10:12absolute
10:12so you would assume that you would have a a free ride in terms of your free speech expression privacy
10:19etc but having said that what happens and this is not something new what happens with most corporates
10:27is contractual responsibilities and liabilities are mounted on particularly top management because
10:34what they do including in their personal lives can impact the company can impact its uh uh rights its uh
10:44you know profits etc a critical case of causes of uh you know for illustrative cases are where uh top
10:51management has been held liable for violation though it was their private lives where there were uh
10:58accusations of sexual harassment for instance where the company has very clear policies which says
11:04you cannot have a relationship internally similarly when you talk about national security always
11:11national security trumps all and here we are talking about a company which is involved in technology
11:20and the issue that has been raised it is still subject to proof so i would qualify it with that
11:26and say
11:27that we have we are still awaiting proof of whether indeed it has been a national security threat but if
11:34it
11:34where then the country would be well within its rights to initiate action and that could be contingent
11:43on what are the laws that they will be applying and what they say is likely to be a violation
11:49but ultimately
11:50everything gets pegged to a contractual responsibility or liability which makes it easier whether it is in
11:57terms of corporate rights or with respect to national security but miss napina will that truth ever come out
12:04because we only know two facts here first i mean what is there in the public domain of course there's
12:11a lot of
12:11reporting which is happening of an alleged third affair an alleged understanding that uh the the lady in
12:19question has gone back to beijing that there was some underhand dealing between her husband and others so it's
12:26very complicated and with every passing day the scandal seems to be getting more murkier do you
12:32think we'll know the truth ever what really happened was she really a spy yeah the good news is that
12:39unlike you know physical world evidence electronic evidence always leaves a trail yes but i called it in
12:46my book no i call it the breadcrumb trail as in hansen and gretel because if you catch the trail
12:52early you
12:53have it if you leave it too late you may miss it out okay richard come in now if nvidia's
13:00leadership
13:00is vulnerable its supply chains are exposed and china is catching up then can america realistically
13:09maintain its artificial intelligence supremacy do you think that is under threat now
13:14uh richard if you heard me
13:23i think we need to see exactly where this is going this is a classic washington scandal that has everything
13:32it has high tech it has high politics it has vast amounts of money it has sex it has international
13:41affairs
13:41the most uh the most uh intense layer so we're just only now beginning to see where this is going
13:48but it is entirely correct that this is going to have ramifications throughout uh the artificial
13:55intelligence industry really throughout the global economy we have to remember nvidia is uh enormously
14:02important uh for the creation of these so-called frontier chips um or accelerators um it is it has
14:11got a a a dominant role in this a eighty percent of the of these of these chips that essentially
14:19educate artificial intelligence models are produced by nvidia it has a uh a capitalization of what four
14:27trillion dollars so to the extent that uh nvidia starts to uh look like it's in a more complicated
14:35situation we are going to see um ripple effects throughout the industry and onto uh uh the various
14:43countries in asia that have essentially become aligned with it whether it's south korea or malaysia
14:49there are others that actually produce the physical chips that nvidia is is designing and it all comes
14:56at a time in which uh internationally and certainly in the united states there's a great deal of concern over
15:03what exactly artificial intelligence is leading us to we see concerns at the at one end during the u.s
15:12elections the whole question of data centers uh had become uh zoomed to the top of of the american
15:19public's concerns and beyond beyond that the question of you know what will artificial intelligence do to
15:27our jobs so if in the middle of all this a scandal uh arises uh that has to do with
15:34the largest company
15:35in the in in in in this sector uh with this dynamic uh leader who seem to have an extremely
15:42close
15:42relationship with the president of the united states um it is going to have a very very uh interesting
15:50effects to put it mildly you have actually um put it quite well when you said that this is a
15:57perfect
15:57washington scandal uh so richard help us understand with the howard lutnik also facing uh scrutiny is this
16:06exposing a deeper failure in the trump administration's china and semiconductor policy
16:15in all fairness these are difficult questions uh we have i the united states certainly has identified
16:24this kind of technology as an area in which it wants to maintain dominance uh the question is how do
16:30you
16:30do it um you essentially uh try to completely restrict uh provision of these uh highly powerful chips to china
16:39um and thus kind of keeping it further behind but if you do that aren't you just encouraging china
16:46uh to develop its own industry much more rapidly than it otherwise would so these are these are genuine
16:52dilemmas um the question is is this being uh resolved and analyzed in a straightforward uh arms length
17:01kind of way or are personal connections uh between jensen huang and senior white house officials
17:09influencing the analysis that we're taking to it certainly president trump has made it made it clear
17:16that he thought that jensen huang was a great leader and he was uh you know really up until huang's
17:22resignation he was apparently urging him to stay on howard lutnik the secretary of commerce has been
17:28the point man on our policy involving chips and china and um and then question now is did he essentially
17:36ignore the views of others within the united states government of the secretary of the treasury
17:41besant of secretary of state marco rubio and uh really sort of push uh not not to impose the kind
17:50of controls that other very very powerful and senior people in the u.s government were arguing for
17:58ross so tell me i mean jensen huang has exited the company
18:03uh from the role of the ceo i mean at present he's no longer the ceo uh donald trump has
18:09taken to
18:10social media and has made this big announcement that it will be tim cook who will be taking over the
18:16reins what happens to nvidia and should the nvidia board have given jensen huang perhaps second chance
18:26had some kind of faith or perhaps even waited for the investigation to conclude without with
18:35the investigation still ongoing why ask jensen huang to resign
18:43first of all i i would take with a grain of salt president trump's comments about tim cook i have
18:50no
18:50idea whether tim cook is interested in taking over uh nvidia or whether the nvidia's board is interested
18:57in him doing it to me that sounds like an interesting idea that the president had but whether it will
19:04have any uh effect in the real world is something i would uh want to wait to before i gave
19:10any credence to
19:11that uh you know what the board of nvidia should or should not have done is a very complicated question
19:20because a firestorm has been raging internationally at the highest levels of politics at the highest
19:28levels of markets around the world i'm not sure that simply uh trying to ride it out and say well
19:35we'll
19:35wait and see and we'll do our own investigation which will take time and you know a law firm engaged
19:41etc would have been really feasible uh we're already seeing in the united states congress getting
19:46engaged uh they were seeking to subpoena jensen huang to testify um you know complicated legal issues
19:54including criminal liability seem to be raised at this point so uh i'm not sure that it really would
20:00have been feasible to say well we're just going to wait and see okay ross what do you think ross
20:06feingold
20:06this is a question to you well as far as the interactions with the board yeah a lot of people
20:14are saying that the board of directors should have given mr huang a second chance but like so much else
20:21surrounding uh these events we simply don't know what the discussions were between mr huang
20:28and the board of directors so to give one very direct but simple example if they had asked him
20:35is there anything else you need to tell us any other uh extramarital affairs or other things you
20:43have done that might affect uh the company the credibility of the company in the public markets
20:50reputational risk for the company and if you didn't disclose those but then hours or days later we had this
20:57news about a relationship potentially with an employee that reports to him and then there are going to be
21:04people on the board of directors who who would say well we asked you a question and frankly uh you
21:10weren't forthright with us and uh you know that that would be an offense where you'd have to say that
21:15the the board of directors would terminate him um so you know we we simply don't know what the discussions
21:22were and what information the directors had um that prompted them to then say well uh you told us
21:30something but uh we still feel we have to protect uh the company and the shareholders and thus we have
21:37to push you out of the company um you know i think we'll find out eventually if that was the
21:43case but
21:43it's certainly a possibility okay and it's not been i try and sum it up for us you know because
21:48i'm
21:48trying to understand has the board nvidia board cut its losses by seeking the resignation of jensen
21:55huang or have they landed themselves much in trouble because here is the chief executive who is the
22:01founder who is the visionary who is the chief salesman he is everything that nvidia is today
22:06and for him to exit what will be nvidia without jensen huang
22:16miss napinai if you heard me yes i'm sorry i thought the question was to someone else
22:23uh well uh uh you know in terms of corporate uh responsibility and the way a corporate uh
22:31entity is structured first and foremost whether you are a founder or a promoter
22:36once you have uh shareholders external shareholders once you are answerable to others then that role
22:43that you envisage as uh you know as a founder gets diluted so your rights or your entitlements get
22:51subsumed to those of the larger group you know it could be of the stakeholders it could be of your
22:56vendors the customers etc so today when you're looking at it from a legal perspective i don't
23:03want to venture into the political aspects of it and there are quite a few nuances there but sticking
23:08to the legality of it uh he has exited uh so it's kind of like a bloodless coup but whether
23:16that's going
23:16to uh spell well for the company or not only time can tell but again an exit from a particular
23:23role may
23:24not necessarily mean an exit from the company itself he would continue to be a shareholder
23:29he would continue to contribute the issue really here is i think the takeaway here is this when you
23:37have a technology company when that technology has far-reaching consequences when you have customers who
23:45are probably government entities your role and responsibility is much higher than that of any
23:52other ceo or a top management person you need to exercise an extra level of caution as an individual
23:59the company needs to exercise a higher level of protective measures guard rails through their policies
24:07and internal functionalities and cross checks and verification processes and any external entity
24:15including including a government which engages with such companies as a vendor will have to evaluate
24:22the what we call you know the weakest link in the technology chain too is this going to be a
24:29weak link
24:29and how is it going to impact them i think these kind of preventive protective measures will go a long
24:36way in terms of assuring cyber security in terms of corporate permissibilities some you know transparency and
24:45clarity in terms of what happens when something goes wrong and having a process driven methodology
24:52instead of a knee-jerk reaction would be a better alternative just 30 seconds to you ma'am as well
24:58do you think the artificial intelligence ecosystem changes forever with this case i don't really think so
25:07we have seen so much of ai bias already talked about we also know that this ai bias can be
25:16manipulated and
25:17that's the kind of situation we are looking at today does it mean we are going to eschew this technology
25:24certainly not this is here to stay ai is here to stay usage and adaptation to ai is going to
25:31continue how far
25:33we put in guardrails how careful are we going to be is something that i hope will change but i
25:39am
25:39very doubtful that it really will make a difference all right thank you so much for your time here miss
25:45napinai ross feingold and richard sanders so the chip king who helped fuel the ai boom is now under the
25:54spotlight for reasons that have little to do with silicon and a lot to do with his personal life jensen
26:01huang and
26:01his fellow tech titans may be masters of disruption but their personal lives are proving just as
26:09disruptive because behind every tech empire there's a story the boardroom doesn't tell and when billions
26:17are at stake even the most private lives can become public business our next report takes you behind closed
26:25doors into the lives relationships and alleged secrets of big tech's bad boys i'm leaving you with the
26:33story thanks so much for watching
26:52in silicon valley where corporate valuations rise and fall on founder charisma personal indiscretions
27:00have repeatedly triggered financial earthquakes the latest addition in that list of bad boys
27:10jensen huang but he is not the first and certainly not the last either
27:21the clearest example remains jeff bezos his 2019 divorce from mackenzie scott after 25 years of marriage
27:30transferred about 19.7 million amazon shares roughly four percent of the company to scott
27:38at the time the stake was valued at around 38.3 billion bezos retained about 75 percent of the couple's
27:47amazon
27:47shares and voting control over the shares transferred to scott limiting the immediate governance impact
27:55but the settlement remains among the largest ever recorded six years later the amazon founder married again
28:03before marriage bezos fulfilled his fiancee lauren sanchez's wish to travel to space
28:09new shepherd
28:27and then in a star-studded multi-day celebration in venice jeff bezos and lauren exchanged vows
28:33till death do us part on june 27 2025
28:41it's been more than a year since then two years after the high-profile divorce of jeff bezos microsoft
28:47founder bill gates entered the list of bad boys bill and melinda french gates divorced in 2021
28:55after 27 years of marriage amid revelations of a past workplace affair with a microsoft employee
29:02and scrutiny over his ties to jeffrey of steam
29:08lacking a prenuptial agreement gates transferred over six billion dollars in publicly disclosed stock
29:15across companies like dairy and company and canadian national railway alongside private settlements
29:23unlike the bezos case the financial terms were never fully disclosed in public and no court
29:29ordered monetary judgment was issued widely cited estimates of a roughly 76 billion dollar division
29:36rest on assumptions about an equal split of bill gates fortune now comes the twist to the tale of a
29:43philanthropic tech giant's personal life in a close-toed testimony before the u.s house oversight committee
29:50on 10th june 2026 gates acknowledged having three extramarital affairs during his marriage to melinda
29:58gates gates named the three women mila antonova a russian bridge player he met at bridge events
30:05karima nigmatulina again a russian nuclear physicist who worked at one of his companies
30:11dr alice jacobs nezelrot a physician and medical entrepreneur he met at a conference prior to 2010
30:19jeffrey epstein drafted unsent maize to threaten bill gates with the information of these affairs
30:25in his testimony bill gates claimed to have severed ties with jeffrey epstein in 2014
30:30and after which the convicted sex offender learned about his extramarital affairs and clearly intended
30:37to use that information to bring the microsoft founder back in his orbit
30:43the other big playboy or the bad boy of silicon valley is undoubtedly elon musk with his own unique
30:49playbook elon musk divorces have also been expensive but they are better described as high profile
30:57marital separations than as a single scandal driven financial event his settlements with justin wilson
31:05and talula riley involved substantial payments and asset divisions though neither approach the scale of
31:12bezos amazon share transfer tesla and spacex chief elon musk has navigated sprawling legal and financial
31:19disputes over his 14 children high profile custody and child support battles most recently involving
31:26writer ashley st claire who alleged musk slashed monthly payments after she rejected a 15 million
31:33dollar non-disclosure agreement these have exposed the billionaire to prolonged courtroom scrutiny but
31:41musk business setbacks have more often stemmed from operational legal and market pressures than from
31:48divorce or affairs scandals nvidia founder jensen huang now has staked claim to this list of bad boys
31:55of silicon valley as more and more skeletons keep popping out of his cupboard nvidia lost nearly 500
32:02billion dollars in a week amid the spy scandal and jensen huang slipped to 13th on forbes rich list
32:09this is still the early stage of this story more is expected in coming days
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