Silicon Valley Loses Its Bulwark Against AI Regulation...

[Financial News] With Jensen Huang stepping down as NVIDIA's CEO on the 12th (local time), the entire artificial intelligence (AI) industry has lost a major bulwark that had held back regulation of the sector.
Former CEO Huang, on the strength of his close relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, has worked to ease AI regulations and exert influence over the technological rivalry between the United States and China. His absence is expected to have repercussions in these areas as well.
At a time when U.S. politicians across party lines were taking a hard line on exports of advanced semiconductors to China, he argued that AI chips should be exported to China to make it technologically dependent on the United States, and ultimately persuaded President Trump as well.
Even when the AI industry, including Anthropic, recently called for the pace of development to be moderated and moved toward tighter regulation, he opposed this and backed the Trump administration's policy of easing AI regulations.
The Trump camp, for its part, effectively made former CEO Huang a key adviser who provided a rationale for the president's AI deregulation policy.
With Democratic politicians who campaigned on tightening AI regulations having recently taken control of not only Congress but also key state governments through the midterm elections, Silicon Valley's loss of Huang means its regulatory shield is at risk of being dismantled.
NVIDIA's board officially announced Huang's resignation that day and named Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Colette Kress interim CEO.
With NVIDIA's graphics processing units (GPUs) effectively monopolizing the global AI chip market, the sudden departure of the CEO, a towering figure who led the company for 33 years, is expected to make a loss of momentum across the AI ecosystem and a seismic shift inevitable, raising concerns about the impact on industry and markets.

[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, international affairs correspondent Reporter