Can Nvidia Survive the Jensen Huang Spy Scandal? | E2361

10.11.2026 · 1 Std. 20 Min.

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Today’s show:

Nvidia’s board is investigating CEO Jensen Huang after he admitted to an affair with Alice Huang (no relation), the leader of Singapore cloud computing and data center interest Megaspeed. US officials now believe that Alice Huang may have been recruited by Chinese intelligence to spy on the Nvidia chief or use him as an asset.

Jason’s take: benching Jensen would be the wrong move, and play precisely into the Chinese government’s hands.

On a Monday all-news special, Jason and Lon dig into the unfolding Nvidia scandal: what it means about Jensen’s past statements regarding Chinese AI, the seemingly intractable chip diversion problem, and whether or not the China hawks were actually right all along on the issue of GPU exports.

Plus: is Sequoia vs. Roelof Botha really happening, or is it just a media narrative? Why Apple CEO John Ternus wants to get more aggressive about using Siri as an agent. And why Jason thinks Democrat will focus more on slowing the spread of self-driving cars and humanoid robots rather than stalling new data centers.

Relevant Links

Nvidia investigates Jensen Huang's relationship with alleged Chinese spy (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/08/nvidia-jensen-huang-investigation-china-spy.html

What is Megaspeed? The Nvidia chip buyer at the center of the story (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/09/megaspeed-nvidia-jensen-huang-alice-huang.html

What the Nvidia board's probe could look at (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/11/09/nvidia-board-probe-jensen-huang-affair-suspected-china-spy-statements/

Shaun Maguire on nation-state kompromat: https://x.com/shaunmmaguire/status/2119582151985574371

Sequoia hits rewind, undoing 20 years of expansion (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/04/sequoia-hits-rewind-undoing-20-years-of-expansion/

FT: Sequoia partners blindsided by Botha's SpaceX board seat (summary): https://mlq.ai/news/sequoia-partners-were-blindsided-when-roelof-botha-joined-spacexs-board-ft-reports/

Ternus presses Federighi to move faster on an agentic Siri (The Next Web, via Bloomberg): https://thenextweb.com/news/ternus-federighi-agentic-siri-apple-ai-bloomberg

Siri chief Mike Rockwell may step down (MacRumors): https://www.macrumors.com/2026/11/09/apple-siri-boss-may-leave/

Introducing Inkling 2 Small (Thinking Machines): https://thinkingmachines.ai/news/inkling-2-small/

Thinking Machines nears a $5B round at a $40B valuation (Dealroom): https://dealroom.co/news/170334-thinking-machines-lab-nears-5b-round-at-40b-valuation-led-by-accel/

Nous Research introduces Arete-27B (X): https://x.com/NousResearch/status/2118822925445050435

Trump says deportations were "too tough" and hurt him in the midterms (NBC News): https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-says-deportations-tough-hurt-midterms-rcna608208

Democratic wave has the robotaxi industry sweating (Axios): https://www.axios.com/2026/11/05/democrat-election-robotaxi-industry

Musk bet big on keeping Texas red. What now for his companies? (CNN): https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/05/business/musk-texas-donations-midterms-spacex-tesla

ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ): https://www.ark-funds.com/funds/arkq

Tesla to wind down Cybertruck production to make room for Cybercab (Fox Business): https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/tesla-wind-down-cybertruck-production-texas-factory-next-year-make-room-cybercab

Bring a Trailer: https://bringatrailer.com

Peterson Automotive Museum: https://www.petersen.org

Julian Wasser's 1968 photo of Joan Didion with her Corvette Stingray (Danziger Gallery): https://danzigergallery.com/exhibitions/julian-wasser-joan-didion

Dueling proofs from OpenAI and Anthropic astound scientists (Scientific American): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dueling-proofs-from-openai-and-anthropic-astound-scientists/

Timestamps:

0:00 Jason's in his Jay Gatsby era

2:05 Plaud - If your work depends on conversations - interviews, meetings, calls - you need a Plaud NotePin S. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

3:22 How much damage does this scandal do to Nvidia?

5:57 Corporate espionage and Shaun Maguire's thread

10:49 Stripe - Stripe Startups offers early-stage, venture-backed startups access to Stripe fee credits and more. Apply today on https://stripe.com/startups.

15:20 Winning the superintelligence race

17:43 Time to buy the Nvidia dip? (Not investment advice)

22:55 Northwest Registered Agent - Got a new business idea? Northwest Registered Agent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more - with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain

23:44 Sequoia closes London office, but why?

27:45 Why Roelof's SpaceX board seat matters.

32:12 GoDaddy - GoDaddy helps founders seek out the perfect domain and will work through brokers if the name you want is already owned by someone else. Find out more at https://GoDaddy.com.

34:16 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more.

38:04 Apple CEO wants Siri to get more agentic

42:05 Lon got a new iMac!

45:45 Upwork - Upwork helps businesses find highly skilled freelance professionals for specialized work. Post your job for free at https://www.upwork.com

46:56 New models from Thinking Machines + Nous

52:10 Local first, then on the cloud: how agent should run

57:00 Gov. Gina Hinojosa and robotaxi rules

1:01:40 Where to put the new data centers

1:16:08 Refusing the "exponential time hypothesis"

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