Jensen Huang: Why a personal scandal for the face of the AI boom has provoked a national security scare

Image source, Getty ImagesByLily Jamali, North America Technology correspondent and Peter Hoskins, Business reporterPublished5 hours agoJensen Huang is one of the technology industry's most high-profile figures.

He rose to prominence as the business he leads - artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia - became one of the world's most valuable companies.

As the face of the AI boom, Huang also became close to Donald Trump as the president pushed for the US to keep its dominance of the technology over China.

The 63-year-old who was once lauded as the "Taylor Swift of tech" and referred to as "Daddy Huang" in Taiwan is now mired in scandal after an affair with a suspected Chinese spy.

Born in Taiwan in 1963, Huang was nine years old when his family moved to the West Coast of the US.

He graduated as an electrical engineer from Oregon State University, and then with a master's degree in the same field from Stanford University.

He has an estimated fortune of $155bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

"Jensen Huang is a tech visionary of the likes of Steve Jobs," Stephen Witt, the author of Thinking Machine - a biography on Huang, tells the BBC, adding that he was responsible for creating AI hardware as we know it today.

Huang has a famously close relationship with Trump. At the recent AI summit at the White House, where 42 tech executives were present, the president was flanked by Elon Musk and Huang.

Trump said he had not spoken to the Nvidia boss since news of the investigation emerged.

"I just know he's a fine person, but you never know what's going on," Trump told reporters, adding that he had "done an amazing job for our country".

Image source, Bloomberg via Getty ImagesHuang has long found himself at the centre of US-China tensions. Trump has repeatedly said the two nations are in a race for dominance.