As Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is being investigated for having an affair with an alleged Chinese spy, let’s not lose sight of the core of the story: an uber-rich dude who cheated on his wife the moment he became a global celebrity.
Jensen and Lori Huang have been together for over 41 years. Lori has been by Jensen’s side since he was a broke college student, when according to Jensen’s telling, he wooed her by promising to get her straight As — and, upping the ante, that he’d be a CEO by the time he was 30. He stayed true to his word: when he was 30 years old, he co-founded Nvidia.
“Lori’s been with me for a long time, our whole life,” Jensen told Singapore-based news channel CNA in a May interview. “She’s been part of Nvidia every step of the way.”
Lori was instrumental to Jensen’s start. A talented engineer like her husband, she got a job at a Silicon Valley tech company and, initially, earned a higher salary than he did. But when Jensen pursued starting his own company, it was Lori who sacrificed her career so she could take care of their two children, Spence and Madison.
Jensen often acknowledges her sacrifice, notes the New York Times, quoting a 2014 interview.
“It’s good to have someone in your life who unconditionally believes in you, who believes you’re doing your best,” Jensen said. “You need people like that, and Lori’s always been that person for me — ever since I was 18, she was there believing in me and knowing I could do it. Even when I had self-doubts, she didn’t.”
Jensen’s company would first find success selling gaming graphics cards. It then cemented itself as the premier manufacturer of AI chips, catapulting its valuation into the trillions of dollars. Jensen became not just an enormously successful businessman but a veritable celebrity, an image he was happy to play into with his signature collection of leather jackets. Like the rockstar he was dressing himself to be, at one point he even signed a women’s chest.
Lori, meanwhile, stayed out of the limelight. Though she attended the same state dinners and glitzy conferences as her husband, she typically resigned herself to the background. But her support was indispensable. At “every moment of Nvidia, she was there,” Huang said. And unlike other spouses of wealthy industry barons, she wasn’t concerned about boosting her own public image by promoting her own philanthropic pursuits.
“Lori is unusually modest by the standards of billionaire couples,” longtime Daily News gossip columnist George Rush told the NYT.
Huang may very well be completely sincere about the praise he’s shown his wife. But in the end, he betrayed her trust.
On Sunday, he admitted to having an extramarital affair with Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang (no relation), an executive at the Singapore-based cloud computing firm Megaspeed. The US government is alleging that Alice Huang is a Chinese intelligence asset who was recruited to spy on Huang and possibly help divert Nvidia’s chips into China.
Huang fessed up to his infidelity in a letter to his employees at Nvidia — where both of his children also work.
“Throughout my life, my family has given me love and support. They deserve my honesty and loyalty,” he wrote. “Instead, I let them down and damaged the life we built together.”
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The post Can We Just Take a Moment to Reflect on How Horrible It Is That Jensen Huang Cheated on His Wife Who Had Supported Him for So Many Decades as He Rose to Incredible Power and Fame? appeared first on Futurism.
