Trump pushes his choice to replace Jensen Huang atop Nvidia - The Independent

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The CEO of the world’s second most valuable company in the world has stepped down amid a sex and spying scandal, and President Donald Trump, who shared a relationship with the ousted tech titan, is now telling the world who he thinks should replace him.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump said that “only one man” — former Apple CEO Tim Cook — could take the place of now-former Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang, who resigned from his post on Thursday after the tech giant was rocked by reports he had an affair with a suspected Chinese spy.

Trump added that a decision by Nvidia’s board to name Cook, whom Trump once mistakenly referred to as “Tim Apple,” as Huang’s successor would mean “a Legend replaces a Legend.”

Cook, 66, served as Apple’s chief operating officer from 2005 until he was elevated to be the company’s CEO after the death of co-founder Steve Jobs. He stepped down as Apple’s CEO earlier this year but has remained the company’s executive chairman.

Huang’s resignation came on Thursday amid a scandal that has wiped hundreds of billions of dollars off the chipmaker’s market value, with share prices plunging 10 percent Thursday morning.

His troubles began last week when The New York Times reported that he’d carried on a long affair with another technology executive named Alice Huang, who American intelligence officials believe is either an agent or asset of China’s Ministry of State Security — Beijing’s equivalent of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Alice Huang, who is not related to Jensen Huang, is believed to have facilitated shipments of Nvidia’s microchips to Chinese firms in violation of U.S. export controls as part of a foreign intelligence operation. Beijing has denied the claims of espionage as“purely unsubstantiated and directed at smearing China.”

The Times subsequently reported that Mr Huang had also had a separate affair with Kimberly Powell, his company’s vice president of healthcare, who is also married.

After the first of the infidelities was disclosed, the executive sent a memo to Nvidia employees Sunday admitting he had been unfaithful to his wife of 40 years, Lori Huang, and said he was “deeply sorry” for the hurt he had case without going into details.

Nvidia’s board responded by launching an internal investigation led by law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

The scandal involving the two Huangs has raised alarms among Democrats and some Republicans who have questioned what Trump knew about Jensen Huang’s behavior, whether it threatened American national security, and whether Trump and others in his administration turned a blind eye to the entire matter rather than risk destabilizing a company that has played a large part in propping up the American stock market in spite of Trump administration policies that have caused widespread economic chaos and increased the cost of living for millions of Americans.

Since Trump’s return to the White House last year, both Cook and Huang have cozied up to the 80-year-old president in conspicuous fashion, with both appearing at a state dinner honoring China’s Xi Jinping in September.

Huang has been particularly cozy with Trump as he and his administration have gone all-in on pushing to grow the American Artificial Intelligence sector to counter China’s burgeoning AI efforts, even as the Trump administration has relaxed export controls on top-end AI chips produced by Nvidia.

During a trip to China earlier this year, Trump had Air Force One make an extended stop at an Alaska air base so Huang, who’d flown there aboard his own private jet, could join the presidential party en route to Beijing.

The inclusion of Huang as a surprise passenger aboard Air Force One came after Trump had been briefed by top officials — including his Secretary of State and national security adviser Marco Rubio — on the Nvidia CEO’s involvement with the alleged MSS asset .

Earlier this week Trump said he had “absolutely no idea” that the first reported affair was with a suspected Chinese spy.

“I think ​he's an honorable guy," Trump told reporters, adding ​that Huang had “done an amazing job for our country”.

Republican leaders of three House committees have meanwhile called for Huang to deliver closed-door testimony on his interactions with the alleged intelligence asset.

And Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons have written to Trump’s commerce secretary Howard Lutnick to demand that all company records relating to Nvidia’s dealings with China be preserved.