With Huang Out, Asian Americans Lose a Star, and Fear What Comes Next

Detailed summary

Many East Asians said that he had swagger and seemed like a superhero. Now there are worries that the spy scandal turns into hyper scrutiny against them.

Jensen Huang’s ouster from Nvidia has prompted fears about its plunging stock, China’s espionage efforts and the future of America’s A.I. competitiveness.

But for some Asian Americans, especially those of Chinese and Taiwanese descent working in technology, the rapid downfall of the powerful C.E.O. has come with another layer of disappointment, as well as fear.

To many, Mr. Huang was a hero — one of the few who smashed through the bamboo ceiling that has long stymied many Asian and Asian American professionals from reaching the C-suite, and did so with an energy that defied stereotypes of Asian Americans as timid or complacent in the workplace.

“He had a swagger,” said Dave Lu, managing partner of Hyphen Capital and a Taiwanese American veteran of Silicon Valley. “To see that exemplified was very inspirational.”

Mr. Lu said that he had been fielding messages from Asian and Asian American tech executives ever since The New York Times reported that Mr. Huang, the Taiwanese American chief executive of Nvidia, had an extramarital affair with a woman that U.S. intelligence services believe to be a Chinese spy.

Nvidia’s board has opened an investigation into his conduct, and Mr. Huang resigned from the company on Thursday. President Trump said Monday that Mr. Huang told him that he was unaware that the woman was an intelligence operative for Beijing.

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