NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang resigns and the end of America's "whatever" political era
Jensen Huang and the end of the ‘lol nothing matters’ era of American politics
NVIDIA announced that CEO Jensen Huang has resigned; he co-founded the company 33 years ago, and Colette Kress, who has long served as CFO, will serve as CEO while the board searches for a formal successor. Hours before the resignation, The New York Times reported he had a second extramarital affair with a subordinate, and Reuters subsequently revealed a third; the earlier first affair report involved Alice Huang, who was alleged to be a Chinese spy. The column criticized Silicon Valley's "founder worship" for bringing founder oligarchization and key-person risk from a lack of succession planning, noted that Jensen Huang downplayed the risk of AI going out of control and resisted chip export controls to China, and mentioned that a chip smuggling scandal implicating a federal agency appears set to continue into 2027. The author believes that this month's midterm election results show that the "whatever" era in American politics and business may be coming to an end.
The column uses Jensen Huang's resignation to analyze Silicon Valley's founder worship and key-person risk, and connects it to his words and actions downplaying AI risk and resisting export controls.