Sponsored by
The Target Was Jensen Huang
On Sunday Jensen Huang sent an email to every Nvidia employee.
The subject line was “A message to our company.”
Here’s what happened.
In late October the New York Times reported that US intelligence had concluded a Chinese chip buyer with a close relationship to Huang was working for Beijing’s intelligence services.
The woman, Alice Huang, is an executive at Megaspeed, a cloud company and Nvidia customer that has been accused of helping restricted Chinese firms get hold of Nvidia chips.
On Sunday Huang told staff he had been unfaithful to his wife.
He didn’t name the woman.
His line to employees: “you deserve better from me.”
The same day Nvidia’s board opened an independent investigation.
A committee of independent directors with outside counsel will examine whether Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort.
The board says it has no reason to believe national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised.
It also says it has confidence in Huang and he stays CEO through the inquiry.
Officials told the Times that, as of last year, they did not believe Huang knew about the alleged intelligence work.
Before Sunday, Nvidia had described the contacts as routine business.
Shares fell about 5% before the open on Monday.
Three House committee chairs have asked him for a closed-door briefing on November 18. 😳
Sit with that.
Nvidia makes the chips inside every AI data center on earth.
Its co-founder has run it for 33 years without a succession plan anyone can name.
And the thing a foreign intelligence service went after wasn’t the fab, the firmware or the export paperwork.
It was him.
Let me explain why this belongs in a newsletter about your business.
Two weeks ago, Binance lost $6.3 billion because an engineer took a fake job interview.
Last week Google banned a TV-box maker that planted a backdoor at the factory.
This week the biggest hardware company in AI is investigating whether its CEO was the backdoor.
Every one of those started with a human relationship, not a line of code.
The Binance playbook was a fake recruiter with family photos.
The alleged Nvidia playbook was a customer with a close personal relationship.
Translation: the security reviews your business needs isn’t a scan of your server.
It’s a list of who has access to the people who have access. 🙄
Speaking of access...
The right tool with the right boundaries beats the clever tool with none.
I’ve got a free invite to Instinct AI, plus six starter prompts for the jobs every business runs: content, client updates, research, sales and workflow design.
They work in any AI tool you already use.
Give the AI a narrow job and a clear line.
That’s the whole lesson of this month. 😏
Did You Know?
Nvidia was founded in 1993 at a Denny’s in San Jose, where Huang and two co-founders sketched the plan over coffee.
Huang has been CEO every day since.
That makes him one of the longest-serving founder-CEOs in big tech.
It’s also why “key-person risk” is now a line in analyst notes. 😅
A CRM so smart, it updates itself.
HubSpot's CRM is so smart, it now updates itself. Calls get logged and summarized the moment they end. New leads get researched and a first outreach drafted, automatically. Deals move forward on their own, with next steps flagged before you have to ask.
Even the one repetitive task you've been meaning to fix can now run itself, no code required. Customers using it are already seeing the difference.
This isn't the CRM you have to work hard to figure out. It's the one already working before you log in.
🗞️ The Tip AI News 🗞️
Anthropic starts selling its IPO today.
The price already dropped half a trillion.
Three weeks ago I told you investors were talking $2 trillion.
The FT reports Anthropic now wants to raise $80 billion to $100 billion at $1.25 trillion to $1.75 trillion.
After Thursday’s 6.4% drop in the Nasdaq 100, Bloomberg says prospective buyers are discussing $1.2 trillion to $1.3 trillion, some as low as $1.1 trillion.
One investor told CNBC $1.5 trillion was “a stretch.”
Here’s what changed in the filing.
The amended S-1 on November 2 shows Q3 revenue of $16.96 billion, up 47% on the quarter.
It also shows a swing to a $567 million operating loss from a $974 million operating profit.
Annual run rate is past $80 billion.
Planned compute spend is about $900 billion against roughly $150 billion in cash.
The price range is still blank.
JPMorgan briefs prospective investors on Friday.
The listing is targeted for the week of November 16.
22 banks are on the deal.
Speaking of the neighbors...
OpenAI closed $11 billion on Friday at a $1.25 trillion valuation.
It had wanted $1.4 trillion and a $30 billion round.
It got $1.25 trillion and is now aiming for $20 billion.
So, the two biggest AI labs are both taking haircuts in the same week their biggest chip supplier is investigating its own CEO. 👀
😂Meme of the Day
Over to You...
Write down the three people whose access could sink your business, and who has access to them.
If the list surprises you, you just did the review Nvidia’s board started on Sunday. 🔥
Founder, AI Persona Method | TheTip.ai
Get paid to solve problems like this → AI Certified Consultant
PS.Goldman Sachs quietly took Claude Code away from its bankers and traders this month and kept it for its 12,000 engineers. In July it was bragging about traders “vibe coding.” Four months later the risk review won. Who on your team has the powerful tool, and should they?
» Join the AI Money Group «
💰 AI Money Blueprint: Your First $1K with AI - Learn the 7 proven ways to make money with AI right now
🚀 Zero to Product Masterclass - Watch us build a sellable AI product LIVE, then do it yourself
📞 Monthly Group Calls - Live training, Q&A, and strategy sessions with Jeff
Sent to: {{ email }}
Jeff J Hunter, 3220 W Monte Vista Ave #105, Turlock,
CA 95380, United States
Don't want future emails?
