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Faisal Islam: What Jensen Huang told me about China, national security and persuading Trump

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Faisal Islam: What Jensen Huang told me about China, national security and persuading Trump

Jensen Huang has the air of the late Steve Jobs about him. I have interviewed both, and the up-close charisma - and occasionally scratchy genius - is shared. Both sported a signature item of black clothing, although Huang opts for a leather jacket rather than the Apple founder's turtle neck.

Both are innovators revered in the tech world. However, Huang is now being investigated over an affair with an alleged Chinese spy . Everything you have heard about Artificial Intelligence (AI) over the past few months - good, bad, revolutionary and catastrophic - is dependent on having the most powerful frontier AI models.

In turn they depend on the most powerful microchips, and for years that has been this very company, Nvidia, led by Huang, and his technology rooted in repurposed games graphics and the manufacturing prowess of Taiwan. Names such as Gracehopper, Vera and Rubin mean almost nothing to the public, but are the names of chips powering the creation of AI models transforming the world.