A lot of people in this industry have gotten it into their heads over the last 25 years that if you create enough value, you get to ignore things like "rules", "laws" and "common sense".

Part of me is hopeful after this. Huang did something that was, at the very least, profoundly stupid, and just short of treason at worst. However, I'm also filled with dread, because I know that this means that there will be even more of an effort by founders to make sure they're immune from consequences from boards if they go public. You already see this at Meta and with Zuckerberg.

We need real reforms on corporate governance that make this sort of situation - a board able to control the C-suite - the norm, not the exception.

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miki123211 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

TBH, I find the manner in which this was done to be pretty distasteful.

The US government initiating action against Nvidia for breaking the law, causing the affair to come to light? Yeah, that'd be fine by me. Somebody inside that government tattling tales to the NY Times, possibly with tacit consent of their superiors? That I have concerns with.

I've seen a theory floated online that somebody inside the government, who was part of the faction advocating for stricter sanctions on China, leaked this in a way to cause maximum damage to the anti-restrictions faction. Whether Huang (female Huang) was actually a Chinese spy in the first place is also up in the air, keep in mind that while the affair has almost certainly occurred, given that Huang (male) has admitted to it himself, the Chinese spy allegations are still unverified. It could possibly have been a "grain of truth in a sea of lies" play.

	▲	quantified 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		> The US government initiating action against Nvidia for breaking the law, causing the affair to come to light? Yeah, that'd be fine by me. Somebody inside that government tattling tales to the NY Times, possibly with tacit consent of their superiors? That I have concerns with. Everything only comes to light with the New York Times reporting on it. It would be fine if the government did it, but... they didn't. If nothing else, this indicated to the board that JH is capable of thinking with his dick and that can be a problem for business.

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wesapien 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Its a threat to their own companies and whatever amount of democracy is there. Maybe ego is like some cancer that kills/self-ded structs its host/person if it gets big enough. Which is good. A persons etreme wealth gets them political power and also advantages before the law. We've seen this with big corporations.

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gib444 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> A lot of people in this industry have gotten it into their heads over the last 25 years that if you create enough value, you get to ignore things like "rules", "laws" and "common sense".

That's literally how the world works? And has worked for many centuries or longer. By "value" you mean wealth, and wealthy people can get away with murder. They buy and write the law and have the best lawyers in the world.

We won't have billionaires/trillionaires/kings AND rule of law for /everyone/ equally - the world doesn't work that way.

	▲	retwakm4 a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		It could in principle though, and things certainly have not been improving in those respects. I'm not going to straight up say they are for sure getting worse either though. I mean, worse compared to when? That being said, I think resigning yourself to this sort of behavior because "muh power and world works this way" is just kind of stupid. It is not in your best interests, as a regular person much like the vast majority of HN posters (besides the AI shill bots), to just be content with that state of affairs, if there are little things that are relatively effective at reducing those kinds of corruptions of social systems. One of those things happens to be general distaste of an authentically Christian society against hedonistic behavior, but that has been on a noted downtrend lately, and I don't think that's been a very good thing. Similarly, I think Protestantism is to blame for a lot of nutty justification for the rich and powerful getting away with stuff like this, but I'm going to be vague about what I mean by that because it would be an essay length post.
	▲	anon291 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Our President literally diddled kids on a Carribbean island, cheated on his wives several times, and is probably a closeted homosexual, but richest man on earth having an affair is where we draw the line.

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squidmaster 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Emphatically not treason. America hasn't declared war on China, China is not therefore an enemy of America in the sense relevant to treason charges.

America has not legally declared a war since WW2. The entire charge of treason is effectively obsolete.

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anon291 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Affairs are wrong, but they are not illegal.

> if you create enough value, you get to ignore things like "rules", "laws" and "common sense".

Hmm... I wonder why that is. Could it be because a bunch of CEOs, prominent politicians, and business people were found to have taken multiple trips to an island where the had sex with children and nothing happened to them? No, it couldn't possibly be that. I'm sick of the pearl clutching against a man who had consensual relationships with adult women his own age, while we excuse pedophilia.

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lenerdenator 2 days ago | parent [-]

> I'm sick of the pearl clutching against a man who had consensual relationships with adult women his own age,

Do we have evidence that his legally-recognized other half consented to these relationships? If so, fine. That still doesn't remove the problems with those relationships, like the possibility of Alice Huang being a PRC intelligence asset, or the fact that one of the affairs was with a company employee, which can, in a roundabout way, place potential penalties on her career if she doesn't consent.

>while we excuse pedophilia.

Excuse me, where the f*ck did I excuse pedophilia???

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butlike 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

You don't have to censor 'fuck.' Anyways, we excused it by not rising up. There was the token online outrage and then the story blew over. Unfortunately the individual is part of the group, so we're all guilty by association.

	▲	lenerdenator a day ago \| parent [-]
		Speak for yourself, people are still working to get more information out and more prosecutions lined up. https://khanna.house.gov/media/press-releases/khanna-massie-...

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anon291 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

> That still doesn't remove the problems with those relationships

In this day and age of no-fault divorce, co-parenting, etc, where is this moral outrage coming from for a man cheating on his wife / girlfriend? I'm just so confused TBH. 'Legally-recognized other half'.... in no jurisdiction is it illegal to cheat on your wife.

> like the possibility of Alice Huang being a PRC intelligence asset,

The sole evidence that she is a Chinese intelligence asset is that she is Chinese.

> he fact that one of the affairs was with a company employee, which can, in a roundabout way, place potential penalties on her career if she doesn't consent.

Forgive me for not feeling sorry for a likely deca, probably centi, millionaire. This is not some secretary intern.

> Excuse me, where the f*ck did I excuse pedophilia???

Because, if we're going to be witchhunting CEOs for their personal lives, there are a helluva lot worse people than Huang that need to go.

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lenerdenator a day ago | parent [-]

> In this day and age of no-fault divorce, co-parenting, etc, where is this moral outrage coming from for a man cheating on his wife / girlfriend? I'm just so confused TBH. 'Legally-recognized other half'.... in no jurisdiction is it illegal to cheat on your wife.

If Huang had just slept with someone other than his wife, it wouldn't be a story. The outrage here isn't from the fire-and-brimstone perspective. I'm a single guy in my mid-30s; even here in Middle America there are plenty of people who practice ENM, no-fault divorce, and coparenting. It's now widely recognized that people aren't necessarily monogamous as soon as they get married.

At the same time, it's still an expectation that one should not do that sort of activity behind a spouse's back. It could result in other issues that could cause them issues, like STIs, or planning life around a child they didn't expect, or estate planning complications. Being open with your partner in life about the feelings you have on the matter is important, and puts the "ethical" in "ethical non-monogamy".

We don't know what the Huangs' arrangement was. I hope it was understood between them, and that all of that was sorted. If not, well, Jensen's going to get to deal with the fallout with that. Which brings us to the problems with the relationships themselves.

> The sole evidence that she is a Chinese intelligence asset is that she is Chinese.

Let's be honest here: that's not enough to get a story going in 2026. There's the fact that she set up a company in Singapore that had revenue figures that far outpaced what's expected for a company of its age, and the fact that they may have helped Chinese interests dodge US export restrictions on Nvidia's products. This was important enough that it was known to Nvidia corporate and the US government. You don't get attention like that just by dating someone from China.

> Forgive me for not feeling sorry for a likely deca, probably centi, millionaire. This is not some secretary intern.

Cultures like this impact everyone. Do we know if the executive was promoted or otherwise benefitted because of her relationship with Jensen? No, but it immediately opens up a conflict of interest for any request she has of the c-suite.

At worst, Huang was operating a Weinstein-like casting couch for roles within the company. If you can make an executive have to perform those sorts of actions in order to advance in her career, what does the secretary intern have to put up with?

> Because, if we're going to be witchhunting CEOs for their personal lives,

This isn't a witchhunt for the reasons stated above. It's SV, bud. People do all sorts of non-traditional relationship arrangements. Hell, even the Alice Huang affair was probably passable once the next news cycle hit. When he's sleeping with people who report to him, it's a problem on its face. It's unprofessional and it makes everyone at the company wonder just what they'll have to do to get ahead.

> there are a helluva lot worse people than Huang that need to go.

We can actually take care of both groups of people. That is actually possible, believe it or not.

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anon291 a day ago | parent [-]

I'm sorry this is insane. Why is it moral to divorce your partner unilaterally (which by necessity is behind your partners back) while cheating is somehow worse. This is retarded pearly clutching to think one is good and the other wrong. Bunch of hypocrits, the lot of you.

	▲	lenerdenator 14 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You can reconcile during or after a divorce. You can discuss it and reduce the harms it might cause. Cheating is an impulsive decision that can destroy any trust one has in their partner and introduce things that can't be mitigated, like STIs. To be clear, it's better to not do either, but given the options, one is certainly better than the other.