You Just Grab Em By the Portfolio
The fallout from the Nvidia story continues to take a toll on our psyches (and our portfolios). From Bloomberg (Gift Article): ‘I’m a Piece of Sh-t’: Jensen Huang’s Last Hours as Nvidia CEO. (With that kind of self-contempt, he should really consider writing a daily newsletter). From Stephen Witt in the NYT (Gift Article): I Wrote Jensen Huang’s Biography. Here’s What Led to His Downfall. “When I wrote my biography of Mr. Huang, I titled it ‘The Thinking Machine.’ The name referred to the microchips that powered A.I., but also to Mr. Huang’s marauding, relentless intellect, which never slowed down or turned off. In the wake of his stunning departure, spurred by revelations that he carried on at least two affairs, one with a woman whom U.S. intelligence determined is a Chinese spy, and another with one of his direct reports, I should write a sequel: ‘The What-Were-You-Thinking?! Machine.'”
+ As much as this is a business story and a corporate leadership lesson, the more we learn, the more we’ll realize that this is first and foremost a political scandal of Trumpian proportions. It goes right to the top, so someone on the way up has gotta take the fall. And anyone following the leaks can see the knives are out for the commerce secretary. Howard Lutnick under pressure over alleged lack of action. (The one good thing about this administration is that no matter who gets punished for something, they deserve it.)
+ “In May 2025, Trump’s administration rescinded a Biden-era rule designed to prevent the most advanced US-made AI chips from being exported to China.” But not until Trump loaded up on Nvidia stock. (You just grab them by the portfolio. When you’re president, they just let you do it.)
+ “One lesson of the Jensen Huang scandal is that policy makers gave extraordinary influence to technology executives whose commercial interests did not always align with American interests. His departure offers a rare opportunity to rethink the assumptions that have underpinned AI strategy for the past two years, address mounting concerns about the technology, and establish a new approach that protects both American AI leadership and public safety.” Thomas Wright in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Jensen Huang Scandal Should Change Everything. Don’t get your hopes up. Should is doing a lot of work in that headline.
+ And if you missed it yesterday, I covered everything from the data center-sized portfolio losses, to the megawatt-powered affairs, to the unfair hit to the leather-wearing community: The Honey Trapdoor.
