Jensen Ousted as Nvidia CEO: "Spy" Scandal, Export Restrictions, Market Impact

Jason Calacanis (0:00)

All right, everybody, we're laughing it up here. It's the All-In Podcast. Apparently, slow news weeks continue. Once again, we struggle to put together a docket, but we're going to try to get something together here, Sacks. I don't know what's in the news. Maybe you have a SaaS corner for us. Any new hotness drop in the SaaS world or no?

David Sacks (0:19)

Yeah, Benioff rolled out a new reporting feature. Probably top of docket material.

Jason Calacanis (0:24)

That is top of docket.

David Sacks (0:25)

You're right.

Jason Calacanis (0:26)

You're right. Friedberg, of course, is here cackling. He's in a good mood, but I understand you almost died in the last week. What were you in the hospital? You had the flu?

David Friedberg (0:34)

I got the pneumonia. Not good. Very bad. Very bad. I do not wish it upon anyone.

Knocked out in the hospital. Everyone stay safe.

Jason Calacanis (0:42)

All right.

I saw everybody with their social media well wishing you. Of course, Chamath Palihapitiya is here. It's a deep pull for Chamath today, a deep pull from the closet. My Lord, I haven't seen that sweater since Biden was in office.

Chamath Palihapitiya (1:00)

It's a nice ribbed cashmere mock turtleneck.

Jason Calacanis (1:03)

Okay. Ribbed for Chamath's pleasure.

David Friedberg (1:05)

Ribbed for Chamath's pleasure.

Jason Calacanis (1:08)

All right.

David Friedberg (1:09)

Listen.

David Sacks (1:09)

I thought it was supposed to be ribbed for her pleasure.

Chamath Palihapitiya (1:11)

It's for her pleasure.

Dario Amodei (1:12)

But it's Chamath.

David Sacks (1:14)

It's all for Chamath's pleasure.

David Friedberg (1:15)

It's always for his pleasure.

Chamath Palihapitiya (1:16)

Absolutely.

Jason Calacanis (1:18)

That's who he is.

All right. Listen. Jensen is out as Nvidia's CEO after an insane series of events that happened in the past week.

All of this played out in just six days, starting Friday, November 6th, and obviously record on Thursdays, which would be November 12th. Here's where things stand as of the taping of this episode. Nvidia's CFO will serve as the interim CEO.

The board's looking for a new chief executive. Nvidia reports earnings next Tuesday, critical moment for the company, and the stock has been crushed down 15 percent in the last week, which is hundreds of billions of dollars. Here's the timeline that led to Jensen's ouster. Last Friday, November 6th, right after the midterms, interesting timing, the New York Times published a report claiming a Chinese businesswoman who had a close relationship with Jensen was actually a CCP spy, a Chinese Communist Party spy. The woman is named Alice Wang, no relation to Jensen. They just happened to share the same last name. We'll call her Alice for the rest of this discussion. She's an executive at a Singapore-based company called Megaspeed. They build data centers in Asia. They rent compute to companies, including Chinese ones like Alibaba. According to the information, their relationship, Jensen's and Alice's, helped facilitate 7.5 billion in ships to Chinese companies since 2023 The New York Times article was based on a leaked intelligence memo that identified Alice as a Chinese spy.

No one knows who leaked it. On Sunday, November 8, Jensen sent a company-wide email admitting he had an affair and that the board would be investigating on Wednesday. The New York Times reported Jensen had a second affair with a direct report. There's reports of a third potential affair.

Let's put all that aside and focus on his resignation, which came after 33 years as CEO. Important caveat, this story has been hiding in plain sight for well over a year. The New York Times first mentioned Alice's relationship with Jensen back in October 2025, not this October 2026, 13 months ago. They published a follow-up last month, NVIDIA Chief Seen as Target of Chinese Spy Plot. Culper Research, spelled C-U-L-P-E-R, is a hedge fund that put a short on NVIDIA, according to their tweet storm six months ago. They published their thesis, which was based on NVIDIA underselling its reliance on China for chip sales. They even mentioned Megaspeed by name in that tweet storm, which you can see on the screen right here. This is a disaster for the White House. There are reports of finger pointing as officials try to figure out why Megaspeed was left off the export control list after these New York Times articles. And we'll get into more export control issues later. Okay, Sacks, we're dealing with partial information here. This is a breaking news story. Caveat, caveat, disclaimer, disclaimer. But let me ask you a simple question. Given the New York Times reporting, what's your take on what they've released to date?

David Sacks (4:33)

First of all, let me just say that I think this is a tragic situation. Okay, it's tragic for Jensen and his family and for Nvidia and its employees.