So, everyone is talking about Jensen Huang’s extramarital affair, and that the person he was having an affair with may or may not be a Chinese spy. The NVIDIA Board has launched an investigation into Huang. And, today, some 100s of billions of dollars have been “wiped out” of NVIDIA’s valuation.

As with all things tech and AI, something is definitely fishy here. And I’m not talking about the affair itself – billionaires and people in power have sadly been known to have extramarital affairs (Bill Gates, Eric Shmidt, etc.) and sometimes their affairs have been used to blackmail them (Bill Gates admitted to this).

Why this instance is slightly more interesting than others is that it comes in the backdrop of “the AI race” or “race to win AI” between the US and China. And said woman involved with Huang may be a Chinese spy – to try and get industry secrets out of Huang and pass them onto China.

For me, the most important thing is that no one has a clear picture of what “winning the AI race” looks like. And even more importantly, the AI bubble is closer to being popped.

It would be hilarious if this ongoing scandal literally causes the collapse of the tech industry, that is now precariously balanced on this house of cards which is the AI hype of the last 4 years.

Btw, if Huang’s wife files for divorce – she would apprently be entitled to $81 billion. Jef Bezos’ then-wife found herself in such a situation, when Bezos eventually admitted to his extramarital affair. Bezos’ ex-wife did a lot of good with that money.

Also, before the AI hype of the last few years, NVIDIA was the cool company in the gaming world. They made GeForce. Remember those? Sad now.

Closer to home, a tecvh executive is facing and responding to criticism, but fortunately it’s not involving any sort of affair. Deepinder Goyal’s Temple opened for pre-orders, and the medical community has criticized the device’s marketing claims, and Goyal has criticized the criticism.

The device has received the sort of critism that wearables often get from the medical community – of sky-high promises without real promises. Goyal responded by saying he never made such sky high claim, and other things like he expects only 1% of the devices produced to be sold in India. I guess if I was an investor, I wouldn’t be investing in Goyal’s companies.

Headlines

• Google and Meta offering voluntary exit to several employees, although number of employees eligible is not disclosed. This follows the same harrowing move from Microsoft. Seriously, is the American tech industry so weak?
• Supermarket Freezer and fridge hacks all over Europe. Basically, several freezers were hacked and had their temperatures raised to well above freezing temperature. Even freezers that hold blood at a blood bank were affected. This led to a lot of perishables needing to be discarded. This week, the EU said that Iran was behind these hacks and said there would be sanctions. Who’s telling the truth? Doesn’t matter. This shows that cyber security is the basis of a livelihood warfare (damaging produce meant to be refrigerated, including blood at a blood bank) or being used as the basis of political action, or both.
• Huawei is launching a sub-brand called Osta and they’re launching new phones in India.
• India becomes ChatGPT’s biggest market, according to the company’s India office. Specifically, India has quietly become ChatGPT’s largest market by weekly users. The company said they are betting that advertising, and eventually purchases made inside the chat, will turn the audience into a business.
• Makemytrip IPO cleared by SEBI. Razorpay too.
• IBM has ended H1-B and Green Card sponsorships for most consulting roles in the US. Affected employees have been told to either work from outside the US, or leave the company by the end of the year.
• CERT-In issued a critical warning to entities in the banking, financial services and insurance sectors about an escalating campaign of AI-driven cyberattacks targeting payment and disbursement APIs.

Book Recommendation of The Week

I know that I said I’d recommend books only till Diwali, and I was planning to recommend something else this week. But the booker prize was announced, and for the first time a science fiction author won the booker prize.

So I’ll be checking out The End of Everything by M John Harrison. And because this is about a post-apocalyptic world that’s looking more and more like reality, you should read it too.