Jensen Huang’s Fall Costs Asia an A.I. Ambassador to the U.S.

Detailed summary

The ex-Nvidia C.E.O. was a bridge between companies and governments. His exit will reverberate, especially in China where it could accelerate a self-reliance drive.

In Indonesia, Jensen Huang was called the leader of the artificial intelligence revolution. In Japan, he was “the next Steve Jobs,” according to the technology investor Masayoshi Son. In Taiwan, where was born, he is just called Dad.

Mr. Huang, who resigned this week from the powerhouse Silicon Valley chip company Nvidia, was celebrated across Asia — from South Korea to Japan, Indonesia to Kazakhstan. He traveled frequently to the region, cultivating close ties with business leaders and wooing government officials.

Outside of China, he pitched Nvidia chips as a path to “sovereign A.I.,” the idea that countries had to build their own A.I. supercomputers and data centers, a vision that many government leaders bought into.

Even in China, where the business relationships he forged for Nvidia were made more complicated by the rivalry between Beijing and Washington, Mr. Huang was often seen as a bridge. That role was cast in a new light by the explosive revelations about his relationship with a woman the U.S. government believes was spying for China.

Nvidia is valued at about $4 trillion, one of the largest corporate valuations in the world. Now Mr. Huang’s sudden departure from the company hangs over the region’s technology industry, raising questions about what it portends for the region’s A.I. boom, U.S. policy on China and the continued expansion of data centers in Southeast Asia, where Nvidia chips power A.I. development throughout the region.

For China, Mr. Huang’s exit could accelerate a drive toward self-sufficiency as Beijing and Chinese companies fear Washington will tighten export controls on American-designed chips.

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