Elon Musk, Bill Ackman and online bots defend Jensen Huang online

After Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang disclosed an extramarital affair with a woman suspected of being a Chinese intelligence asset, prominent investors and tech figures defended him online. Bill Ackman called him an exceptional person who had made a mistake; Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire described the situation as damaging but argued Huang was vital to U.S. AI leadership, and Elon Musk agreed. Their argument was that Huang’s importance to the AI industry and the national competition with China warranted caution before condemning or removing him. Other investors, including Ron Conway, urged people to wait for company and government investigations. The defenses appeared before reports of another affair and before Huang resigned.

Alongside these prominent voices, hundreds of accounts presenting themselves as ordinary users echoed pro-Huang messages, including replies directed at congressional accounts. The Midas Project identified about 400 accounts it considered part of a coordinated campaign, citing shared creation and profile-update patterns, overlapping activity on unrelated political and business topics, and links to accounts previously tied by Haaretz to an Israeli public-relations firm, Koios. Some accounts argued that being targeted by a spy was not the same as knowingly helping one. The campaign’s organizer and purpose remain unclear; Koios denied involvement, and Nvidia said it was trying to identify the accounts’ source. After the findings were publicized, accounts deleted posts, and at least 260 were deactivated or suspended on X.