THE consequences of Jensen Huang’s diminished credibility could extend well beyond chipmaker Nvidia Corp and complicate prospects for American companies seeking business with China more broadly.
Before being engulfed by a Chinese spy scandal, Huang was the last tycoon standing among high-profile American corporate titans advocating for closer engagement with Beijing in the Trump 2.0 era.
Tim Cook stepped down as chief executive (CEO) of Apple Inc in August.
Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc has seen sales stall in China while his attention is consumed by running his vast tech empire and playing failed financier to the Republican party.
It’s a far cry from the years when household names like Mark Zuckerberg of Meta Platforms Inc famously jogged through Tiananmen Square and Alphabet Inc’s Sundar Pichai played Go for the cameras.
Visiting CEOs often prefer to maintain a low profile these days.
In the decade of relentless tariff pressure on China, they’ve learned to shift their operations and strategies to other markets, and to keep their heads down against Trump’s displeasure.
The Taiwan-born Huang had commanded unusual respect on both sides of the Pacific. Most of it came from his status as a self-made billionaire who also evinced a rare kind of political confidence.
What really set him apart, though, wasn’t just his willingness to defend doing business with China in the intensifying tech cold war over artificial intelligence, but his ability to influence the debate.
Huang had President Donald Trump’s ear on trips to Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, London and Beijing over the past year, helping convince the administration that restricting American chip sales could backfire by making space for Chinese rivals like Huawei Technologies Co.
The resulting policy concessions showed that there was still room for commercial considerations in a US-China relationship increasingly dominated by national security concerns.
China was historically one of Nvidia’s biggest markets before the operation was put at risk in 2022, when Washington began to expand restrictions on the sale of advanced semiconductors to the country.
After years of avoiding Washington, Huang began to lobby for relaxing export controls.
He took his efforts straight to the top, especially after Trump began his second term. The campaign was successful.
Late last year, Trump agreed to allow Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Intel Corp to sell less advanced versions of their chips to China.
That makes the hit to Huang’s reputation particularly significant.
How much, if any, was his lobbying being unduly influenced by an alleged Chinese spy? Parallel investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigations and Nvidia’s board of directors may eventually shed some light.
Either way, at a time when few American corporate leaders are willing to publicly challenge Washington’s harder line on China, one of the most effective advocates for keeping that relationship alive has been compromised.
The repercussions may be felt on several fronts.
The espionage scandal, while rumbling for more than a year, emerged after Democrats made a decisive comeback and are preparing to subject semiconductor exports to China to tougher oversight.
Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, poised to become the House speaker in January, said this week that he “strongly supports” restrictions.
A crackdown on Chinese companies getting around chip curbs, either by buying through third countries or accessing overseas data centres, cannot be ruled out.
The affair underscores the fragility of relations, even after the September summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping raised hopes of a thaw.
One test will be whether Boeing Co can finally secure a long-anticipated order for 200 aircraft (already downgraded from a 500-plane deal) from Chinese airlines.
Aviation deals are notoriously sensitive to shifts in political winds, and negotiations have already dragged on for months.
There are still details to be worked out over at least US$17bil worth of promised annual Chinese purchases of US farm products through 2028.
The summit’s most tangible achievement, a framework to cut tariffs on US$60bil in bilateral trade, has not yet been finalised.
Asked whether Huang would accompany him to the upcoming Apec summit in Shenzhen next week, Trump didn’t give a definitive answer.
The question illustrates how the rockstar CEO who was welcomed everywhere has become a possible diplomatic liability.
At a time when Washington and Beijing need experienced people to address their many differences, the most prominent business voice has gone silent. — Bloomberg
Juliana Liu is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion’s Asia team, covering corporate strategy and management in the region. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.
