Is Jensen Huang’s bad behavior more commonplace than it seems?

The AI industry is still reeling from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s honeypot scandal, but some in the industry see it as an issue that’s much larger than one man. The Chinese government has been active in economic espionage for decades, and with semiconductors at the center of the AI boom, there’s intense pressure to infiltrate any company involved. At the same time, many of the executives getting rich off that boom have made themselves easy targets. As CEO of investment intel firm Heron Intelligence, Nate Singer has a unique view into the problem. His firm works on corporate due diligence: Essentially, making sure companies know the relevant dirt before making a major acquisition or executive hire. And while the Nvidia case is particularly severe, Singer says there are lots of similar cases in the semiconductor industry that have stayed under the radar. “We’ve got former employees talking about behavior at senior executive levels,” Singer told TechCrunch, saying executives are “really crossing lines that should not be crossed.” In a widely circulated LinkedIn post , Singer detailed one case in which a CEO’s wife made an unexpected board room appearance, “screaming about her husband and another company exec flying around in the corporate jet with a couple young ladies (who also turned out to be state-sponsored actors).” It’s an alarming story, but an unfortunately common one. Singer says he’s seen at least three reports of similar cases, and suspects many more have gone unreported. “There’s a lot more than this one woman,” Singer said. “They are embedded in these companies.” Semiconductor companies are already big targets for international trade secret theft. There have been dozens of prosecutions for similar cases in recent years, including a case involving the fabrication powerhouse TSMC in 2006. In 2017, four executives at an unnamed “Bay Area semiconductor equipment manufacturer” were charged with stealing trade secrets for use at a competing company in China. According to the indictment, the technology in question “related to the high-volume manufacturing of semiconductor wafers to be used in lighting and electronic devices, such as flat screen televisions and smart phones.“ Any sexual elements in such cases rarely become public, in part because of the severe consequences for executives and their companies. But according to Singer, the ongoing threat has become a kind of open secret in the industry. “There are a lot of senior people in the industry that know this is happening, and are effectively condoning it,” he told TechCrunch. Topics AI , China , Jensen Huang , nvidia When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission . This doesn’t affect our editorial independence. Russell Brandom AI Editor Russell Brandom has been covering the tech industry since 2012, with a focus on platform policy and emerging technologies. He previously worked at The Verge and Rest of World, and has written for Wired, The Awl and MIT’s Technology Review. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at 412-401-5489. View Bio 2027 San Francisco Get an Early Peek at the Next TechCrunch Disrupt Disrupt, Startup Battlefield, and more will return next year, and you can be at the front of the line. Sign up for our waitlist Register Now Most Popular Anthropic launches Claude Meetings to turn workplace discussions into plans and tasks Aisha Malik Jensen Huang’s alleged honeypot scandal has inspired some top-notch memes Dominic-Madori Davis Lucas Ropek Waymo robotaxis kept illegally passing school buses after software fix, feds say Kirsten Korosec Musk says Tesla will refund some Cybertruck deposits, defends decision to end production Kirsten Korosec Tesla will stop making the Cybertruck in 2027 Sean O'Kane Claude can now analyze your spending with its new Personal Finance tool Aisha Malik Harbinger raises $240M after expanding into defense Sean O'Kane