東京：冇邊個美國人比 Nvidia 嘅首席執行官黃仁勳更堅定地主張向中國出售人工智能晶片。呢個長期嘅倡議原本可以用一般自利理由解釋，因為涉及嘅利益高達數十億美元。依家，呢個解釋突然變得模糊。
不論佢嘅信念係咪正確，黃仁勳近年嚟幾乎每一次公開發表嘅講話，因為報導指佢同一名美國情報官員懷疑係中國間諜嘅女子有情事，已經全數失去說服力。
NVIDIA 嘅董事會表示，佢哋冇理由相信國家安全或公司機密已被洩露。黃仁勳只承認對妻子不忠，佢承諾會全力配合董事會嘅獨立調查。
但無論調查結果點樣，亦不論花幾耐，信任嘅重建都唔會輕易。
NOT SO DIFFERENT FROM THE TECH BILLIONAIRES
Across Asia, Huang’s techno-optimism that AI shouldn’t be another zero-sum game was infectious. I remember catching a glimpse of him last year in Taipei, on the island where he was born, where seemingly every surprise appearance generated a Taylor Swift-like welcome.
Even then, I wrote that it was hard not to worry about how easily he could be set up for a fall as his role evolved from geeky video games wonk to global AI kingpin.
Yet his dramatic plunge from grace since the weekend has been so shocking partly because the honey-trap story feels so depressingly low-tech.
Despite being the boss of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, with his own net worth topping US$150 billion, Huang had cultivated an image that separated him from the rest of the billionaire tech class.
He seemed unusually genuine when stopping by night markets and local pubs across Asia to grab a beer or bowl of noodles, and still talked about washing dishes at Denny’s as a teen in the US. Huang, 63, spoke warmly and often about his wife of 41 years, whom he met when she was his electrical engineering lab partner.
The story goes that he eventually came up with the idea for Nvidia while at a Denny’s, before growing it to become the more-than-US$4 trillion behemoth it is today. And now this, as if the AI-wary American public needed another reminder to never put any tech executive on a pedestal.
For people already angry about an out-of-touch broligarchy accumulating extraordinary wealth and political influence – and who delivered a stunning verdict on it in last week’s midterm elections – one of the industry’s last charismatic ambassadors suddenly looks a lot like the rest.
CHINESE AI STILL WANTS NVIDIA
Yet the personal scandal may be beside the point. Huang has spent years warning that China could win the AI race, or is just “nano-seconds” behind, and that export controls on cutting-edge chips have backfired.
From that, he drew a message of cooperation to keep ahead, or maybe of holding your rivals closer.
He praised Chinese breakthrough DeepSeek as a gift to the world. His most common refrain was that if America can’t sell chips to China, then homegrown champion Huawei – perhaps Nvidia’s only real long-term competition in the Chinese market – will be empowered to fill the gap and erode US dominance.
Does this argument collapse with his credibility? Or, in the long run, will a weakened Nvidia prove him right?
Huawei still cannot fill the Nvidia-shaped void in China’s frenetic AI market. China’s biggest tech companies clearly want to get their hands on its offerings.
ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent recently placed more than US$35 billion worth of orders for Nvidia processors that comply with US export restrictions, despite Beijing’s desire for a switch to domestic alternatives. And even Huawei has acknowledged that it can’t keep up with demand, despite recent advances.
CHINA ACCESS WILL FACE NEW SCRUTINY
Huang might have had a shot at getting some more of Nvidia’s offerings back into the China market. The demand was there, and the Trump administration appeared a receptive audience to his go-to talking points and calls for loose regulation.
But it’s likely that the newly elected Democratic Congress will be less so. And any attempt now by Nvidia to argue for greater access to China will face obvious new scrutiny, and likely outright derision.
A further crackdown from Washington on Nvidia chips going to China will undoubtedly cause near-term pain. Yet Huawei’s leadership and Beijing have also made clear that the long-term goal is self-sufficiency, and this determination likely hasn’t changed.
The cruellest irony may be that Huang loses his influence in Washington just before China starts proving his point.
