NOT SO DIFFERENT FROM THE TECH BILLIONAIRES
Throughout Asia, Huang’s techno-optimism that AI shouldn’t be one other zero-sum recreation was infectious. I keep in mind catching a glimpse of him final 12 months in Taipei, on the island the place he was born, the place seemingly each shock look generated a Taylor Swift-like welcome.
Even then, I wrote that it was onerous to not fear about how simply he could possibly be arrange for a fall as his position advanced from geeky video video games wonk to international AI kingpin.
But his dramatic plunge from grace because the weekend has been so surprising partly as a result of the honey-trap story feels so depressingly low-tech.
Regardless of being the boss of the world’s most respected chipmaker, together with his personal internet price topping US$150 billion, Huang had cultivated a picture that separated him from the remainder of the billionaire tech class.
He appeared unusually real when stopping by evening markets and native pubs throughout Asia to seize a beer or bowl of noodles, and nonetheless talked about washing dishes at Denny’s as a teen within the US. Huang, 63, spoke warmly and infrequently about his spouse of 41 years, whom he met when she was his electrical engineering lab companion.
The story goes that he finally got here up with the concept for Nvidia whereas at a Denny’s, earlier than rising it to turn into the more-than-US$4 trillion behemoth it’s at the moment. And now this, as if the AI-wary American public wanted one other reminder to by no means put any tech government on a pedestal.
For individuals already offended about an out-of-touch broligarchy accumulating extraordinary wealth and political affect – and who delivered a surprising verdict on it in final week’s midterm elections – one of many business’s final charismatic ambassadors immediately appears lots like the remaining.
