Nvidia investigates CEO's affair with suspected Chinese spy

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Schwab knows that when it comes to your finances, choice matters. No matter your goals, investing style, life stage or experience, Schwab has everything you need, all in one place, so you can invest your way. Visit schwab.com to learn more. If you are currently overpaying on software to run your business, remember this number, 10,000. That's the number of new businesses that join Odoo per month. Join Odoo today at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson, and in the early hours of Monday 9th November, these are our main stories. The US tech giant NVIDIA opens an independent investigation amid reports its chief executive,

1:12Jensen Huang, had an affair with a suspected Chinese spy. An anti-terrorism investigation is launched in Poland after a mass shooting which left at least six people dead. And a train crash in Egypt kills at least seven people and injures more than 100. Also in this podcast, South Africa's governing party, the ANC, records its worst result in local elections since the end of apartheid. And... I mean, it's surreal. Grant and I each got an arm and lifted him up, and he was in total shock. The only thing he said to me was, thank you, I thought I was going to die. The miracle rescue of the cruise ship pianist who somehow fell unnoticed into the Pacific Ocean. We start with the news that the US tech giant NVIDIA has begun an investigation into its co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang,

2:11following reports he's been having an affair with an alleged Chinese spy. NVIDIA is one of the world's most valuable companies, its success driven by demand for its graphic processing units and artificial intelligence infrastructure. Mr. Huang has admitted to the affair and apologized to his wife and family. Speaking earlier, President Trump said he had not spoken to Jensen Huang about the allegations, but he called him a fine person. I think he's an honorable guy. I think he probably has an excuse for it. You have to hear it now. you can't do that with people. He's done an amazing job for our country. I got more from our technology editor, Zoe Kleinman. It's such an extraordinary story. My phone has been blowing up tonight with contacts in the tech sector

2:57who are just stunned by the news because not only has Jensen Huang confessed to having an affair, he's written an email to staff saying I was unfaithful to my wife my actions hurt her and our children there's no excuse for what I did I'm deeply sorry but in addition to that family heartbreak you've got this alarming national security concern because Alice Huang who's the woman he was with is suspected by US intelligence of spying for Beijing. So you've got this enormous maelstrom, if you like, of controversy and concern going on around a man who has been the safe pair of hands steering the very successful company NVIDIA for more than 30 years. He's renowned for being a workaholic. He's a perfectionist. He's someone who has

3:45incredibly high standards and expects so much from his staff. I've heard stories about if somebody makes a mistake in work, he calls an all hands meeting, gets everyone in the company together and tells the person off in front of them because he says he wants everyone to learn from their mistakes. So, you know, he's a man who really doesn't tolerate mistakes. And here he finds himself now having made this enormous best error of judgment and currently saying he still wants to carry on leading the company. What's the worst case scenario here? What information, if she is a Chinese spy, what information might she have taken and what could she do with it? Well, NVIDIA's board says there's no evidence so far that he shared any sensitive information with her at all, either about the US or about NVIDIA specifically. But there have been

4:29suggestions that her company is a Singapore-based tech firm called Megaspeed, has been involved in getting NVIDIA's chips. They're the most in demand in the world for running powerful AI systems into China. Now, they're not supposed to be there. You know that China and the US are locked in this intense race to develop the best AI models the fastest. And that's a big part of why the US has blocked NVIDIA's tech from going there. It doesn't want China to have them. The suggestions are that her company may have been sort of sneaking them in. And that is very worrying. And it will be very worrying right at the top of the administration, especially for President Donald Trump, who's been so vocal about whoever wins the AI race wins

5:12and his absolute insistence that the US has to get there first and has to have all the best tech, you know, behind it. Yeah, and talking of President Donald Trump, there are reports that he was told about this months ago. Yes, so Jensen Huang is close to President Donald Trump, there are reports that he was told about this months ago. Yes. So Jensen Huang is close to President Donald Trump. And as you say, it's been reported that he was made aware of this, I think, as long ago as a year ago. And he chose at that time not to take any action. Now, whether or not that is going to come back to bite him remains to be seen. I think there's an awful lot of information now that needs to come out. You know, NVIDIA is investigating. Jensen Huang has also been called to speak to Congress about his

5:49relationship with Alice Huang later this month. So we are just at the start, I think, of uncovering exactly what's been going on here and what may or may not prove to be vulnerable. What's happened here, you know, it wasn't some elaborate some elaborate AI enabled sting that caught him out. It was a very simple and very old fashioned situation where he was following his heart. And that turned out to be potentially an enormous mistake. And briefly, can he survive, Zoe? He wants to. He says he intends to carry on leading. He has brought this company back from the brink of bankruptcy on more than one occasion. It was Jensen Huang who decided that they should focus on AI chips years before anyone else was talking

6:30about AI. NVIDIA was making chips for the gaming industry originally, and he made that decision early on. And look at how it's paid off. You know, this company is now worth $4 trillion. So I think it's going to depend on so many factors, what this does for the reputation of NVIDIA and also whether the staff decide to tolerate this mistake that he's made, given that he hasn't particularly tolerated theirs over the years. Can the company survive without him? That is the question that I think lots of people within the company at all levels, especially at board level, are going to be asking themselves right now. Zoe Kleinman. Police in Poland are carrying out a terror investigation after a man shot six people

7:11dead in the centre of Krakow. Fifteen others were wounded when the suspect drove into the main square and opened fire. This woman was there when the shootings happened. I heard a sound that sounded like fireworks and it was just like and we froze in our tracks. A split second later I could see a swarm of people like hundreds of people running towards me. They were obviously trying to flee the square and they were exiting the square and running towards me, so I ran. The suspect was shot and taken to hospital where he remains in a critical condition. It's believed he murdered his parents and sister before carrying out the attack. Our World News correspondent, Joe Inwood, has been following the story.

8:01He's been speaking to Charlotte Gallagher. The footage is extraordinary. Some of it is really quite distressing. We's been speaking to Charlotte Gallagher. The footage is extraordinary. Some of it is really quite distressing. We've been going through it all day. And what you see is a high-speed car chase taking place in central Krakow. And there's a black car driving through the old square and seems to be shooting at people seemingly at random. You can see the police chasing as well. They appear to be exchanging fire. And then eventually there's quite a lot of footage we've seen which shows the black car crashing into another, into a stationary car. The shooter, the man who's dressed in all military tactical gear,

8:34he gets out the car and two police officers get out as well. There's a gunfight at really close range. And you can basically see all three men get shot. The police officer who's in the back, he slumps down, really falls down. Another police officer goes down by the wheel of a car, seemingly taking cover. The suspected gunman then comes out and is shot at close range by one of the police officers. Another police officer, it's not quite clear which one it is, someone who will have been shot, comes up to him and at really close range shoots him multiple times while he's on the floor. You then see that police officer try to apply some sort of first aid to stop the bleeding, but he gradually falls to his knees and slumps over, rolls to the side. Now at this point,

9:15you then see in separate footage, you can see a number of people come and start to administer first aid. And it has now turned out that some of those people were surgeons who were eating at a nearby restaurant. And all of them, we we understand are still currently alive and being treated in hospital. Early days but where are police with the investigation and the motive for this? The police have not released a name yet but what we do know is they've said that they think it was a terrorist incident they've used that word quite deliberately and they say that they think it was inspired by a far right ideology. We have got footage of police searching a home. And a key part of this story, it seems, is that the suspected gunman appears to have shot three

9:56other people there. Now they are reported to be his two parents and his 21 year old sister. Now we were listening to an interview done by the Reuters news agency with someone at the scene. He knew this person at school, they were friends at school. He didn't remember anything like this in his backstory, but he said he's lost touch with him and he went on to say who knows what happens at university. I mean, thankfully, attacks like this are almost unheard of in Poland. This will come as such a huge shock to people in Poland. Yeah, and that's one of the things, when you listen to the voices of people who were there, the eyewitnesses, the people who've been speaking to the BBC and other news organisations subsequently,

10:32is that real sense of shock, of grief. You've got two days of national mourning and a period of mourning in Krakow itself until Wednesday. And I think there seems to be a determination there to remember what's happened but not to be defeated by it. Joe Inwood. A large recovery operation has been underway in Egypt after two trains crashed south of the capital, Cairo. At least seven people were killed and more than 110 people were injured. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has told the authorities to begin an urgent investigation. Abdel Basir Hassan from BBC Arabic has the latest from Kare. Egypt's National Railway Authority said in a statement that a train travelling from Giza to Fayyum collided with the rear of another train operating on the Cairo-Aswan route,

11:21killing and injuring dozens. The accident occurred in Al-Ayat, south of Giza, causing several carriages to derail and overturn into nearby farmland. The health ministry deployed more than 70 ambulances to transport the injured to nearby hospitals. Emergency teams and heavy lifting equipment have been sent to clear the wreckage and restore services along the Cairo-Aswan line in both directions. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi offered condolences to the victims' families and wished the injured a speedy recovery, saying he had directed state agencies to provide the necessary medical care, swiftly investigate the circumstances of the accident and hold anyone found responsible for negligence accountable.

12:13The cause of the latest collision remains under investigation as the 2002 disaster in which a fire engulfed a train heading to Upper Egypt, killing hundreds. Railway accidents in Egypt have been linked, among several reasons, to human error, outdated signaling systems and poor maintenance. Despite recent efforts to modernise the railway network, accidents continue to occur. Abdul Basir Hassan from BBC Arabic. US tech companies, including Nvidia, which we've already heard about in today's podcast, are critically important in many parts of the world. Europe has long depended on them for much of its digital infrastructure, from cloud hosting to social media. But concerns about security, resilience and geopolitical risk are fuelling European efforts to achieve greater digital sovereignty.

13:16Elizabeth Hodson reports. The push for a digital future on Europe's own terms, something that's been termed digital sovereignty, has gained a lot of momentum over the past year or two. So why is it now in the spotlight? There's been a kind of realisation in Europe that Europe's reliance on US tech platforms is a geopolitical vulnerability in a world where Donald Trump can threaten to invade Greenland or cut off satellite access to Ukraine. Nick Reiners is a senior geotechnology analyst at the Eurasia Group, a global political risk research and consulting firm. There was a famous example when an international criminal court judge and several of his assistants were sanctioned by the White House

14:01and suddenly they couldn't use their email accounts, they couldn't use their email accounts, they couldn't use their credit cards, not even their voice assistants. And this just goes to show the breadth and the power of US sanctions, including on tech companies. Are governments in Europe right to see this as such an existential threat? Do you think they're overreacting? Is it completely valid? What's your view? Certainly the US tech companies would tell you that this is a kind of absurd thing to be worried about, the scenario that Donald Trump could order all of Microsoft and Amazon's servers to be switched off. The companies have put in place various measures, putting their servers in Europe and managing them with European boards. The truth is it's impossible to say.

14:44There's also just the general feeling that Europe needs to stand on its own two feet in Europe and managing them with European boards. The truth is, it's impossible to say. There's also just the general feeling that Europe needs to stand on its own two feet when it comes to technology. Anna Zeiter is CEO and co-founder of a Swedish company called W, a new social media platform whose data is hosted in Europe. When JD Vance came to the Munich Security Conference, I think most as well in the digital value chain. Here's Jo Hodgson, who leads the UK and Ireland business at Red Hat. It specialises in providing open source software to clients ranging from big corporations to government bodies. Open source is basically a model where the original code or

15:45blueprints of a project are made publicly accessible. And that means that anyone can view, modify and share them. It's about ensuring that if you're a hospital or you run a national rail network or a bank or any business that you have independence. There is no single national company that owns that technology or that can turn it off. But concerns over digital autonomy aren't just about operating systems and data providers. Anna Zeiter from W says that there are several other areas of contention, notably over social media apps owned by companies outside Europe. What social media are we using mostly? Me included, I use LinkedIn, I still use a little bit of X. I still use Facebook, Instagram, also TikTok from China.

16:31So we give away our attention to China and the US. We are giving away the data, the revenue, and then we're also getting back the worldviews. But Joe Hodgson is unsurprisingly optimistic about how transitions can be managed, particularly when it comes to open source software. In fact, Linux, the open source operating system, has been dominant in business and government data centres since the 2000s. NASA successfully piloted the Ingenuity Mars helicopter using open source software framework. And the International Space Station has migrated all of its command laptops completely to Linux in order to have that absolute stability. Joe Hodgson ending that report from Elizabeth Hodgson. To hear more, search for Business Daily at bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

17:30Still to come in this podcast. I was going into work not wearing a mask just a few days ago. And now, you know, not wearing a mask and stepping outside just seems unimaginable. It's something that's all around us. Why Delhi's pollution has put a dampener on Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. When it comes to travel, you can spend your time planning, or you can spend your time living. I would absolutely recommend traveling with a guided tour. With Colette, it's easy. Everything is planned for you. You just show up. Takes a lot of stress out of planning a trip. Small groups, expert guides, and the freedom to truly explore. Colette. By travelers, for travelers. Visit GoColette.com today or talk to your travel advisor to learn more.

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21:00With President Trump pulling the US out of the UN climate process altogether, and many richer countries diverting aid to defence and easing soaring energy bills, progress at this year's talks will be even tougher than usual. And the latest figures underline the stakes. Berkeley Earth, an independent US research group, puts the chance of 2026 being a record hot year at 95%. Copernicus, the EU's climate monitoring service, is more cautious about a record, but says this year is virtually certain to be one of only two years to pass 1.5 degrees of warming. Turkey and Australia, the co-hosts, hope that getting countries to commit to a new goal to speed up the switch of cars, homes and industry from fossil fuels to clean electricity will ensure that there's something to show at the

21:52end. Justin Rowlett. South Africa's governing party, the African National Congress, has recorded its worst result in local elections since Nelson Mandela led the country into democracy more than 30 years ago. Some members of the ANC have called the outcome catastrophic. Ed Habershan sent this report from Johannesburg. Once heralded as the liberation movement that swept aside South Africa's violent apartheid regime, the African National Congress could now be facing terminal decline. While the party won the most votes overall, just over 30%, it was a significant drop from 45% it took at the last local elections five years ago, and around two-thirds 20 years ago. The picture was all too clear in the provinces, where it won a majority in just one of nine,

22:42and in the major cities, gaining most votes in just two of eight. President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged the results at the National Count Centre. It is a decline that is concerning, and that's how I characterise it. We accept the will of the people, however concerning it might be, that this is how the people of South Africa in our towns, in our cities, in our metros have spoken, and this is their verdict. Service delivery under the ANC has been poor, with people facing issues with water provision, sanitation and power supply. Parties now have two weeks to build local government coalitions, some of which the ANC may find itself shut out completely. A remarkable outcome for a party that was once so dominant here.

23:36Ed Habershon. Now to India and the sound of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights in Delhi. Firecrackers, the sound of this joyous occasion, which is celebrated by many millions. But this year, it seems they're making Delhi's annual winter pollution much worse. The quality of air in the Indian capital, said to be among the world's worst, always worsens at this time of the year, causing serious health problems. Lise Doucette spoke to Aranesh Karkun, a resident in Delhi. I think it's been particularly remarkable this year because we had really nice weather at the end of October. There were some showers, so we had really clean air. And I think over the last week or so, it's been such a steep decline that I think everyone's felt it quite immediately.

24:29I mean, I was going into work not wearing a mask just a few days ago. And now, you know, not wearing a mask and stepping outside just seems unimaginable. It's something that's all around us. You wake up and you see it outside your window. It's a very pervasive thing. You can even smell it in my family where my grandmother, she fell ill during pollution season and she had pneumonia and that really impacted her. And he passed on a few months later. I've had friends recently, someone who had a child and they've spent money just sort of looting up their house to prevent air pollution in their immediate surroundings so that their newborn child can have a healthy environment to grow up in. I'm fortunate enough to not suffer from a breathing issue at the moment,

25:13but my physical exercise is limited. I can't go out for walks as unhindered as I would, for example, or for a jog. It's just a lot harder now to do those basic things. Very sorry to hear the news about your grandmother. You described it as being during pollution season. So this is something which has become part of the cycles of the year in India. But this pollution season is worse than ever. I think it's just how rapidly things have gone from pretty good to really bad. I think there's some stories coming out that this is the worst in 10 years, Diwali Day. So far, the crackers will start bursting in a few hours in full force. So I guess it will get worse, but it's quite bad. Bursting crackers definitely does contribute to the pollution.

26:00And as does the stubble burning that is taking place. And it's all over the news right now. The reason why the air pollution is so bad in the region right now is because of just the atmospheric and geographical factors. In the winter air it becomes really still, it becomes very compressed so the amount of pollutants, the concentration goes up. It's the perfect storm for some of the worst air quality on the planet. Harun Ashkakin speaking to Lise Doucette. Here's a question for you. Do you think billionaires should pay more tax? Well, that's what people in the US state of California were recently asked to vote on. And with about 75% of the ballots counted. It appears their answer is no. Around 53 percent of voters have rejected a proposal to impose a one-time wealth tax on California's billionaire residents.

26:53Nomia Iqbal spoke to Joe Garofali, a political writer for the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. It looks like Prop 40 is going to fail, and so the state's 240-odd billionaires will not have to pay that one-time 5% tax that they could have spread over five years. So why do you think supporters couldn't win the argument with voters? Number one, the billionaires organized and they raised $391 million that they spent on advertising against it, which is, even in California, that's a lot of money. But also politically, the forces that wanted to pass this law were split. And the two most powerful forces in California politics are the Democratic Party and organized labor. But even the governor of California opposed this, Gavin Newsom, who is running for president for a couple of reasons.

27:40He thought it would drive billionaires out of the state. In California, it's a progressive tax system, and we rely on the wealthy to pay wealthiest 1% pay about 40% of the state income tax here. And the other reason is that organized labor was split on this. Some unions, like the teachers union and the building trades, were actually opposed to it while other trade organizations were for it. If the two most powerful forces are split and the governor, who has still retained some level of popularity, is against it, that turned the tide against the Proposition 40. I know California is the first state to have put this sort of tax to a vote. So is it that this needs redoing or revising? And might the next governor and state legislator

28:23just try to put this to a vote again in a few years? It will probably be in a couple years, because California did tax other wealthy people, people who made a good deal less than that, maybe $300,000 or $700,000 a couple on that same ballot, extending a tax on those folks passed. So it's not necessarily an opposition to taxes against the wealthy. It's about how this tax was structured. There were some flaws in it and also how the forces behind it were not united. They didn't organize well in the run-up to the election. Joe Garofali from the San Francisco Chronicle. And finally, a remarkable story of survival at sea. A man who fell overboard has been rescued after treading water for nine hours far from land in the Pacific Ocean.

29:11Marian Strawn has the story. At around noon on Friday, two fishermen were heading back to shore to Newport Beach with a catch of marlin when they spotted a man in open waters about 30 kilometres off the Californian coast. The man identified himself as the pianist from the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, the Ovation of the Seas. He'd apparently plunged into the Pacific Ocean in the middle of the night, somehow falling from the 14-storey cruise liner. One of the fishermen who found him is Sean Norton. He spoke later to the US network CBS. I mean, it's surreal. Grant and I each got an arm and lifted him up, and he was in total shock. The only thing he said to me was, thank you, I thought I was going to die.

30:00The pianist, who hasn't been named, was hospitalised after the ordeal and is expected to survive, according to the US Coast Guard, which is investigating the incident. And fisherman Sean believes the unusual warmth of the sea this year, it was around 25 degrees Celsius, probably saved the man's life. You have this crazy Super El Nino year. Sky was in the water for probably 10 hours, but the water's 76 degrees. A different year, no way he makes it. By the time the penis was plucked from the ocean, the cruise ship had already been docked in the port of Los Angeles for several hours. In a statement, the Royal Caribbean Group has said it's providing support and assistance to the crew member, but it has no additional details to share.

30:48Marion Strawn. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. This edition of the Global News Podcast was mixed by Sydney Dundon and the producer was Emma Joseph. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritson. Until next time, goodbye. Looking for the perfect rental? Discover top-rated stays loved by guests, rated highest by real guests through authentic reviews. These traveler-loved stays are recognized by the details that matter most and validated by real experiences. Choose confidently from rentals you can trust. Vrbo. Book now a vacation rental loved by guests.