CEO was viewed as ‘irreplaceable’, but recklessness of affair with a woman regarded by US officials as a Chinese spy made him a political liability

Half the tech world made up its mind before the facts could be assessed properly. Jensen Huang was “irreplaceable”, said the chorus at the start of this week. Nvidia would melt without the co-founder’s brilliance, apparently. The chipmaker’s board had to find a way to save its genius for the sake of corporate America and the entire AI universe.

It was always nonsense because, after the passage of only a few days since his confession of infidelity, Huang looked less like a towering corporate titan and more like a political liability.