Jensen Huang’s fall sparks dismay in Asia over Nvidia ex-CEO’s family man image

Tech titan Jensen Huang, dressed in his signature leather jacket, has always carried the charisma of a rock star during his public appearances around the world. That allure runs deep in South Korea, where he has had viral dinners at local fried chicken joints as onlookers jostled for a glimpse of the AI chip visionary.

But that admiration turned to dejection for some fans in the East Asian nation after Huang resigned as Nvidia’s CEO on Thursday amid reports of three extramarital affairs, including one with a woman suspected by US intelligence officials of spying for China, which Beijing has dismissed as “baseless speculation”.

The scandal ended his 33-year stint at the company he co-founded. Huang, 63, remains Nvidia’s largest individual shareholder, with a stake of about 3.6 per cent, according to the company’s most recent filing.

His downfall was hard to come to terms with for some supporters in South Korea, who had long revered his carefully curated public persona: a devoted family man in a leather jacket, sharing beer and fried chicken with the chiefs of Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor at a local Seoul restaurant while discussing business deals.

Huang and Lori, his wife of more than 40 years, have also been spotted indulging in street food abroad.

Kim, a 36-year-old office worker, told The Korea Herald that the revelation of the affairs was disheartening.

“He took Nvidia to No 1 in the world, a real underdog story. He had showmanship, and he seemed like a devoted husband,” Kim said.

“This isn’t a movie. I never imagined Chinese spies and affairs. I’m so disappointed.”

Last October, Huang brought Samsung Electronics chair Jay Y. Lee and Hyundai Motor executive chair Chung Eui-sun, who are rarely seen in public, to a restaurant in the South Korean capital.

That gathering sparked a frenzy among his fans, boosted fried chicken-related stocks in the country and elevated his celebrity-like status.

“Huang’s the head of a company, yet he went out of his way to connect with ordinary people in such a down-to-earth way,” said Park, an Nvidia shareholder, who witnessed the gathering.

“I really liked that. He came to Korea to work with Korean companies, so my expectations were high.” He said he now felt “greatly disappointed”.

Nvidia supplies artificial intelligence chips to major South Korean companies, including Samsung and Hyundai.

During their visit to Seoul in June, Huang and Lori appeared on a television show and recalled how they met in college.

The affair saga has also sparked disappointment and memes elsewhere in Asia, including in Taiwan, Huang’s birthplace.

“He used to be very popular, but after his personal moral scandal and allegations of corporate espionage came out, he instantly fell from grace,” Associated Press quoted a Taipei resident as saying.

A social media user said that “the guy spent half his life trying to convince everyone he was a true Taiwan patriot, only to do the most stereotypical rich-guy thing possible: cheat on his wife”.

One of the online memes mocking Huang featured Indian tech billionaire Narayana Murthy asking: “So … where is Jensen Huang getting so much time?”

The Infosys co-founder in 2023 said young people should work for up to 70 hours a week to boost India’s industrial development, triggering debate and ridicule.

South Korean tech leaders closely associated with Huang, such as Lee and Chung, have avoided making public statements on the scandal.

As Huang contemplates his future, fellow tech billionaire Elon Musk said on social media that it “would be an honour” to hire him.