US Intel isn't sure if Alice Huang spied on Nvidia for China
cnn.com
cnn.com
In this narrow case, it's highly likely that she took money from the Chinese government -- which is not to say their intelligence agencies, but rather the tech funds and other national/regional government bodies that directly invest in important/strategic ventures. Almost all Chinese tech and manufacturing firms take .gov money. The Chinese government is very very good at supporting development.
What's indeed far from clear is whether she was working for any Chinese intelligence agency directly. Jensen was a China dove, and his fall from grace hurts China in the near term. It'll be interesting to see what shakes out.
This whole situation is extremely confusing to me.
...a normal human with normal human drives. Let's not forget that possibility.
idk. (more reputable) news where from the very beginning using terms like "suspected spy" and similar
as far as I can tell "she is suspected of it, but no evidence exists" might have been the simply truth story from the beginning
but there had been a lot of dogey things going on in context of Nvidea<->China, no matter if Nvidia is involved, and "boss has affair with spy" is the perfect instrument to funnel all the existing dissatisfaction and warning others to not be "too" friendly with china, even privately.
But the sanctions are in place. They are technically all committing treason in allowing this deal to go through, particularly because Jensen and Nvidia donated money to let the deals go through.
With Trumps influence reduced after the midterms the administrations seems to be turning against each other to create separation and deniability of involvement in these alleged crimes.
This is honestly frightening and the biggest damage done to democracy by the Administration. I may disagree with my government, but nothing matters if I can't even trust them.
The GOP has been doing the same thing for decades, so they could argue for privatization. The desperately want their buddies in corpland to be able to make much more than the equivalent government services are charging. Government services are by definition non-for-profit and that kills them.
Well played, Xi.
It looks like someone who knew of the "leak" to NYT set themselves up for a payday, and the "leakers" are trying to undermine the argument that every time the US made a move in this tech war, their opponent double down on their resolve into building their own, then undercutting their prices. That is not to say nvidia does not have vested interest in continue selling, far from it. I'm sure ASML would like to sell EUV too, but they'll crack that nut and there would be no need for China to buy ASML, or nvidia.
1. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-nvidia-chips-pile-h... 2. https://www.ft.com/content/13c485dc-2d51-4920-bd1f-13a11c79d...
What Nvidia employees need to do is strike and walkout until he is reinstated.
Sort of like when Brian Krzanich got tossed for having an affair with an Intel employee. The affair had ended years ago, no one cared at all until the stock price went down due to his incompetence so they pulled it out of the archives. The board probably liked that he had an affair since it gave them leverage.
It is clearly, clearly enough that it looked a lot like she could be (and it does!)
I fully believe the NY Times is correct in that there was a "memo" citing "intelligence." I believe CNN's sources in saying that this "intelligence" did not actually contain conclusive evidence. Remember that "intelligence" can mean anything from actual wire taps, to unverified claims from foreign agencies, to lies by sketchy sources, to a junior analyst reading the newspaper. And being a "spy" can mean anything from being an actual trained honey-pot, to someone the MSS had a single conversation with.
- AG says no. (“no conclusions reached”). - CIA says no. (“not yet convinced”). - DNI says no (“not entirely accurate and over-torqued”). - Ranking Democrat on House Intelligence (incoming Chairman) says no. (“today, at least, I don’t know”). This was immediately after he was briefed.
none of the mainstream news sources can be trusted - they all exist to manufacture consent on behalf of gvt or some other powerful individuals.
That's not "spying" is the traditional sense (stealing secrets).
It's a well known fact that each time we see an Asian, we are collectively thinking: "spy, spy, spy!!".
The whole thing went from NYT’s shocking article of “Jensen was sleeping with a Chinese spy” to “We don’t know if she’s a spy, but she could be because she’s… you know… Chinese”.
And the way and timing the 2nd and 3rd affair stories broke by the NYT, this really looks like a concerted effort to oust Jensen using the NYT as an instrument.
We can only speculate who’s behind this, but multiple parties benefit from removing the biggest advocate in Silicon Valley for open-weight models and more competition.
It doesn't escape me that as a nice bonus the most valuable US company is now out of the hands of a 'Chinese' CEO too.
Yeah, that's what happens when you put clowns at the top and drive out the people with real experience and intellect.
Good lord, the racism. I can see being a bit suspect of a foreigner harboring love for their mother nation, but existing in a world in which you literally cannot concieve of a foreigner not being a agent?
How paranoid do you have to be to get to "I cannot possibly believe that she is not a spy based solely on the fact that she's chinese."
Like, maybe she is or isn't, but to go on record saying that her innocence is literally beyond belief (or perhaps merely only hard to believe if it only 'strains' credulity) because of her heritage? That cannot be anything but racism.
The first layer is friendly - money, gifts, favors. The second is threatening. The third is no holds barred. They will jail your family members[1] if they're still mainland. Stalk and harass your family even if you live in the US[2]. Weibo is generally the main conduit.
Given we've seen this playbook first hand executed for seemingly minor offenses to the state it isn't at all unreasonable to conclude Alice was under CCP influence in some way and probably significantly given Jensen's significance.
[1] Ex-FAANG employee had one of their parents jailed for nearly a decade for non-CCP aligned views
[2] Ex-FAANG employee, after sending nearly all their salary back to China for 5+ years to secure their parent's release reported stalking incidents from CCP agents in mainland USA. Same type of CCP agents that operate out of the 18+ Chinese Police Stations recently discovered in Canada.
1. Their practices outside of china even, are aggressive and openly corrupt: https://netzpolitik.org/2021/wolf-culture-how-huawei-control... Which I think I first saw here on HN actually, IIRC
2. My parents, both were born behind the iron curtain in Germany in the 50s and 60s, so they spent only a little over half of their lifetimes, in technically the “western world”… they had some crazy stories how they and family friends were essentially pressured to do some morally questionable stuff, nothing like this of course. But it really isn’t that far fetched, and technically not that long ago…