TRANSCRIPT 🔗
00:00:00
Speaker 1: Let's get to the spy story.
00:00:01
Speaker 2: U.S.
00:00:02
Speaker 1: Intelligence services think that Jensen Huan, who's the boss of the tech giant NVIDIA, may have had an affair with a woman passing information to the Chinese government. The NVIDIA board is investigating. Paul Spain is Gorilla Technology CEO and with us.
00:00:14
Speaker 2: Hello, Paul. Hello, Heather.
00:00:16
Speaker 1: So it's a classic honeypot, eh?
00:00:19
Speaker 2: Oh, it's a fascinating situation. There's, I guess, yeah, lots of unknown at this point, however.
00:00:26
Speaker 1: Okay, so what is it most likely that she was after if she is a spy?
00:00:31
Speaker 2: Well, I think there's a whole range of things. Getting access to the chief executive and founder of the world's largest company, that's access potentially to information, certainly likely access to influence. Of course, he's got the air of, you know, top politicians, particularly, you know, in the US up to, you know, presidential level. And, of course, sort of roadmaps and plans for.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: NVIDIA.
00:01:09
Speaker 2: So there's just sort of, you know, so many possibilities there.
00:01:13
Speaker 1: If NVIDIA had been targeted like this, and you assume it's a target, I mean, we don't know, but if they had been targeted like this, should the other AI companies also be looking through all of their contacts?
00:01:24
Speaker 2: Look, I think this is a reminder probably for any organisation that has important intellectual property that's very valuable to be thinking around, well, how do they protect that and how does that tie in with relationships? And so that could be New Zealand companies as well who have developed very valuable intellectual property you know, it has to be thought about, you know, very carefully of how do you control that.
00:01:59
Speaker 1: Now, do you think he's going to lose his job over this?
00:02:03
Speaker 2: Oh, I mean, this is one of the, I guess, one of the complications. And, you know, when you've got a leader who's the founder and the business is, you know, very much centered around them, I mean, it's a little bit like, you know, Elon Musk and, you know, his businesses. A lot of the success you know, of this type of firm ties back to the chief executive and the founder. So, you know, I think they'll be very, very cautious about making that sort of move because it would impact the fortunes of the business. And of course, you know, really most AI that's done today, you know, ties back and uses NVIDIA technology. So, you know, this is a really key thing for the US, for US versus China, and for, you know, probably a high percentage of people that have investments today, be it KiwiSaver or, you know, direct investments.
00:02:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, fair point. Hey, Paul, thanks very much. As always, Paul Spain, Guerrilla Technology CEO.
00:03:04
Speaker 2: For more from Heather Duplessy-Allen Drive, listen live to Newstalk ZB from 4pm weekdays or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.