[Edaily Reporter KIM YOON JI ] "A Nightmare for NVIDIA." Concerns are mounting that the global AI industry could be shaken as Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA and a symbol of the AI industry, has been embroiled in an extramarital affair scandal involving a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy. Foreign media outlets are continuing to mock and criticize him, noting that this titan—who has transformed the world with cutting-edge technology—has been tripped up by allegations of an old-fashioned “honey trap.”
On the 9th (local time), Bloomberg published a column titled “Huang Had His Head in the Clouds,” pointing out that CEO Huang—the king of the AI cloud industry—was actually lost in his own thoughts. The piece combines the English idiom “having one’s head in the clouds” with his status in the AI cloud industry. The Verge, a U.S. technology news outlet, dubbed CEO Huang “NVIDIOT,” a portmanteau of “NVIDIA” and “idiot.”
The British magazine *The Economist* also joined in the satire by playing on the fact that Jensen Huang shares the same surname as Alice Huang, a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy. Drawing on the English proverb “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” it pointed out, “Two Huangs don’t make a right.”
The problem is that this incident goes beyond a simple personal scandal. Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine assessed CEO Huang’s affair as “possibly the most expensive extramarital affair in history.” This is because the scandal could escalate into a U.S. national security issue, given that Alice Huang was part of the executive team at Megaspede, a Singapore-based data center company that was under investigation for allegedly transferring cutting-edge semiconductors to Chinese firms. Indeed, while tech stocks rose that day, NVIDIA alone plummeted 4%, causing $192.1 billion (approximately 258 trillion won) in market capitalization to evaporate overnight.
Levin raised the possibility that this incident could reduce the likelihood of NVIDIA obtaining a license to sell advanced semiconductors to China or that stricter U.S. export controls could lead to a decline in revenue. Furthermore, he expressed concern that the development of the AI industry itself could be delayed as the influence and credibility of CEO Huang—who has consistently argued that the pace of AI technology development must not be slowed—weaken.
Given NVIDIA’s standing in the global AI industry, the repercussions are even greater. Bloomberg columnist Shri Run pointed out, “NVIDIA is not only the largest publicly traded company in the AI industry, with a market capitalization of $4.5 trillion (approximately 6,012 trillion won), but it has also leveraged its own creditworthiness to accelerate infrastructure expansion.” Over the past three years, NVIDIA has provided $300 billion (approximately 400 trillion won) in financial support to its customers and invested billions of dollars in startups such as NeoCloud.
Calls are growing louder to determine whether CEO Huang has put the company and U.S. national security at risk. Bloomberg columnist Dave Lee argued, “Congress should summon CEO Huang to testify under oath.” He urged, “How could CEO Huang, who spends $4 million (approximately 5.3 billion won) annually on security, have held secret meetings on the sly?” adding, “We must uncover who knew what and when.”

In particular, columnist Lee raised questions about whether CEO Huang shared the details of his private meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump with Alice Huang, and whether he had ever accessed CEO Huang’s electronic devices.
CEO Huang’s iconic status also came under scrutiny. Bloomberg columnist Catherine Sobeck assessed, “The message CEO Huang has emphasized at nearly every public event in recent years has crumbled in the wake of this incident.” Recalling her experience of seeing CEO Huang in person in Taipei, Taiwan, Sobeck noted, “Whenever he made an unannounced appearance, he was greeted with a frenzy of excitement, as if Taylor Swift had shown up.” This underscores the magnitude of the fallout from his downfall, given that he had emerged as the most powerful figure in the global AI industry.
He pointed out, “What makes this downfall even more shocking is that the so-called ‘beauty trap’ story feels like such an outdated tactic.” In an era flooded with warnings that out-of-control AI could lead to a cyber catastrophe or the extinction of humanity, the very titan leading the AI industry is being rocked by a traditional extramarital affair scandal.