Amid Nvidia spy scandal Trump recalls he once threatened leader of a big AI company with arrest

Amid controversy surrounding Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang over his personal life and allegations of Chinese spying, US President Donald Trump in an interview on Sunday (Nov 8) said his administration threatened to jail the head of a major AI company over alleged misconduct. However, he refused to give out any names.

Speaking on CBS' "60 Minutes" Trump said that his team encountered "a situation where somebody was reported to us to be doing something bad with AI."

"We called them very strongly and said, get ready to go to jail. Please give your wife a kiss goodnight," he further said.

Though, Trump refused to the name the person, he said it was from "one of the big ones," after host Ross Douthat pressed him hard to answer whether it was "a leader of a major AI company."

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Speaking further on the episode Trump said "We said, 'Go home right now. See your wife and children. Give them a kiss good night, because tomorrow morning, you're going to jail."

Trump claimed in the interview that the executive subsequently "totally changed everything."

The statement by Trump comes amid Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang admitting he had been intimate with a business executive identified by US intelligence agencies as a Chinese spy.

About Jensen Huang

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is President Donald Trump’s favorite AI CEO, and an important player in next-generation GPUs needed for AI training and processing.

It was alleged that a businesswoman by the name Alice Huang was hired by China’s Ministry of State Security (M.S.S.) to spy on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

Huang, later acknowledged to the company’s board that he had been intimate with a business executive identified by US intelligence agencies as a Chinese spy.

In a message to the company, Huang apologised for his actions. “I was unfaithful to my wife,” he said. “My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry.”

Nvidia’s advanced chips are in great demand across the globe. The company has grown multifold in the last few years and in return has helped drive the stock market.