Jensen Huang's 'LOVE LOVE LOVE' on a Hongdae BBQ Table ... 'Was He Referring to Three Women?' Mockery Pours In

[Financial News] Artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has faced a succession of multiple affair allegations, turning a handwritten message he left during his visit to South Korea last June into a target of online mockery and satire. Various parodies are now pouring out, with domestic retail investors who have moved into loss territory amid the sharp drop in the stock price joining in.
On the 12th, a message that CEO Huang wrote on a table at a barbecue restaurant near Hongik University Station in Seoul's Mapo District on June 5 was rapidly recirculating on major South Korean online communities and social media (SNS). During his visit, Huang joined the heads of major South Korean companies for a so-called samgyeopsal-and-soju gathering. He wrote “JENSEN WAS HERE (Jensen was here)” in black marker on the edge of the table, followed by “LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. (Love, love, love),” and left his signature.
At the time of his visit, the message was fondly remembered as a heartwarming fan-service gesture expressing Huang's special affection for his Korean partners and the country's culture. But as a series of personal-life scandals have emerged recently, people have increasingly mocked the significance of his repeating “LOVE” three times.
With his wife, Lori Huang; businesswoman Alice Huang, who is suspected of links to Chinese intelligence as a spy and has admitted to an affair; and NVIDIA Vice President for Healthcare Kimberly Powell, named in a further affair allegation reported by The New York Times (NYT) on the 11th (local time), all being mentioned, a cynical interpretation has emerged that the message was “a heartfelt confession to three women and a foreshadowing of things to come.” However, the allegation of an inappropriate relationship with Powell, raised by the NYT citing testimony from five former associates, has not been officially confirmed.
Various memes using AI technology are also spreading rapidly online. A prominent example is a parody that composites Huang's and Alice Huang's faces onto performance footage of singers HyunA and Jang Hyun-seung performing “Trouble Maker.” Wordplay has also emerged suggesting that adding a dot to the Korean word for NVIDIA's flagship semiconductor product, “chip,” turns it into the word for “mistress.”
The backdrop to the increasingly fierce satire by South Korean internet users is retail investors' disappointment over NVIDIA's falling share price. With reports even emerging that NVIDIA's board is seeking to oust CEO Huang, the company's shares briefly fell below the $160 mark in U.S. after-hours trading on the 11th (local time).
According to the Korea Securities Depository, as of the 10th, domestic investors held approximately $13.64744 billion worth of NVIDIA shares (about 18.2 trillion won), the second-largest holding among overseas stocks. NAVER Pay's My Assets service estimates that the average purchase price for 241,668 domestic holders is about $167.6. The after-hours drop appears to have pushed many investors into unrealized-loss territory, fueling their anger.
[email protected] Moon Young-jin Reporter