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Comment by dofm | Hacker News Reader

You think Jensen is sort of mostly a victim rather than very obviously negligent? That he couldn't have known a Singapore-based Chinese woman whose company builds Chinese data centres could not be compromised and acting on behalf of the Chinese state?

I mean I think many things about Nvidia but one thing I do not think is that its CEO is an idiot.

I also think he will have had security advice that she might be, not least because Trump and Rubio knew a year ago.

Here is an easy guide to working out if someone could be a spy: if they are foreign, keen to get to know you, and they run a large enterprise that would be materially advantaged by having a way around the export controls on your products that impact the state where they were born and where they do business, they could be a spy.

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> they could be a spy.

Agreed. Note that I asserted that those reporting seem to drop the "could" that you added, and simply proclaim she's a spy. Spies tend to be secretive, so knowing whether she is, is a strong claim that requires strong evidence. As it's widespread, that suggests to me someone is raising this issue for personal gain. That's my gripe with current reporting.

I meant to say nothing about what Jensen should have done or not, though I see how it could be interpreted that way. Whether he's being used for someone's narrative in the media has little to do with if he's a victim or not.

I mean the US intelligence community clearly thinks she is an asset of Chinese intelligence one way or another.

I don’t know, you don’t know, but short of this being the US government shaming Jensen Huang to gain some leverage, it’s probably easier to go with the theory that she is an asset.

Either way it’s profoundly negligent on his part.

> whose company builds Chinese data centres

Does it?

Megaspeed is a "Singapore-washing" operation. It builds data centres that serve the Chinese market specifically.

The results are ultimately Chinese data centres no matter where they are (Malaysia and Indonesia apparently).

But Megaspeed's parent company/backers build data centres in China and there is not enough (if you'll pardon the pun) of a Chinese wall between the things the parent builds and the subsidiary builds; they apparently shared the same promotional material.

All of this is stuff Jensen Huang does know. (Not saying you are doing this but) I think it's hilarious anyone is out there allowing for him to have an innocent "I was preyed on and could not have known" excuse. It doesn't stack up. He knows exactly what Megaspeed is.

Thanks. That makes sense, I didn't realise this.

s/could not have been compromised/could have been compromised/

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