After Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told the world that he had been unfaithful to his wife, some of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest individuals rushed to their keyboards to tell their millions of followers that it was okay that one of America’s most powerful businessmen might have exposed himself to a Chinese spy.
“@JensenHuang is human. And he is an incredible human. Even incredible humans make mistakes,” tweeted billionaire Bill Ackman on Sunday. “Onward.”
The thrust of the messages — posted before Huang resigned Thursday morning — was that the co-founder of the company that develops the precious chips needed to develop artificial intelligence was too important for the United States’ standing in the AI race to be pushed aside — despite revelations that the Chinese woman with whom Huang had an extramarital affair may have been a spy.
Huang may have done something “incredibly dumb,” and it was “bad for America,” but “my guess is there was no bad intention,” wrote Shaun Maguire, a partner at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital.
“Two mistakes don’t make a right, and I believe Jensen is irreplaceable for America’s AI leadership,” he added.
“I agree,” replied Elon Musk.
I agree https://t.co/d9sRWNM2dC
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 8, 2026
And joining the chorus online were voices of seemingly everyday people: a chef, a stock trader, a Hebrew teacher and several environmental activists. But at least 400 of them were fake, according to researchfrom the nonprofit Midas Project, with links to a public relations firm involved in previous so-called “sockpuppet” campaigns.
The online rush to defend Huang — which came before Nvidia’s board weighed ousting him in the wake of reports that he had a second extramarital affair with a co-worker — reflects his legendary status in Silicon Valley. His company controls the chips that OpenAI, Anthropic and other leading tech companies need to train their models (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI). Nvidia is a stock market juggernaut underpinning the value of millions of Americans’ investment and retirement funds.
Many of the fake accounts, according to Midas Project executive director Tyler Johnston, replied to journalists, former U.S. officials and other prominent figures and backed not just Huang but Nvidia’s push to sell its cutting-edge chips to Chinese firms. Like other documented influence campaigns, the posts appeared to have limited reach; the most-viewed tweet garnered about 8,000 views and 32 likes.
Still, some of the posts targeted lawmakers, including accounts for the House Select Committee on China, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts).
“That’s a place where you might not need a lot of views, but maybe the staffers who are running the lawmakers’ account are paying attention to how their messages are received,” said Johnston, whose group advocates for safe AI development.
Chris McGuire, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, was another frequent target of the posts. He said in an email that he had “definitely” noticed them, and had assumed that they were from Chinese bot accounts, which he said regularly attacked his posts (Johnston said he believed the accounts were run by human beings).
Johnston identified about 400 accounts involved in the effort by examining a smaller list of accounts at the center of a series by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz last year about a pro-Qatar campaign orchestrated by aides to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Nine of the accounts in Haaretz’s reporting had been posting pro-Nvidia content beginning last year, such as one “Kenneth Byers” claiming to be a chef.
“The actual boss fight here is separating “spy targeted him” from “he helped the spy.” Those are wildly different claims, fam,” the Byers account wrote in response to a story from the outlet PC Gamer discussing Huang’s ties to Chinese executive Alice Huang, who is suspected of being an intelligence asset. “A dramatic headline can’t bridge that gap without evidence of Jensen’s knowledge.”
There were other clues that helped identify accounts as being part of an apparently coordinated campaign, according to the Midas Project. Some of them were created minutes or hours apart, and had user names and profile photos refreshed at similar times. They also sometimes engaged on oddly specific issues ranging from Qatar to Nippon Steel’s bid for U.S. Steel and a waste management plant in Oregon.
And some of them feigned gestures of veracity; the Byers account discussed a love of lasagna, and another count called “AvaWalsh” commented on this year’s Halloween costume by actress and model Heidi Klum.
Any one one of the posts — often replies to other posts — might have not looked suspicious in isolation. But the various clues taken together, Johnston said, gave evidence that they were linked. Some of the accounts then rushed to delete posts after he posted his findings online, and at least 260 of them have been deactivated or suspended by X.
It’s not clear who orchestrated the apparent effort. Some of the accounts were identified by Haaretz’s investigation last year as being run by an Israeli public relations firm called Koios.
Koios did not return a request for comment but denied involvement to the Midas Project. Nvidia told the nonprofit that it was aware of the accounts and was trying to identify the source (Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment from the Post).
But there are lots of people that would have an interest in defending Huang, said Ryan Fedasiuk, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
“There are many actors in the American economy who believe that Mr. Huang’s personal status as CEO of the company is an essential part of American economic growth,” he said.
And late Wednesday, before the latest news about Huang broke, prominent investors continued to come to his defense.
“As the swirl continues (which I believe should be taken seriously), let’s pause for a moment and remember what Jensen has contributed to our industry with his determination and vision, which laid the foundation that we all work off of today,” wrote venture capitalist Ron Conway, adding that the public should wait for various investigations by the government and the company to conclude.
“Jensen’s statements have shown grace and dignity to his family and the industry. He surely understands the impact,” he added.
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