> I wonder what the criteria are as a private (if publicly-traded) enterpise to merit the security training treatment.
We had a large and growing operation in China which included development, not just sales. Even before Trump 1, there were signs our operations there were being targeted by Chinese intelligence, so we already were in contact with US intelligence. I wasn't in that loop in detail, just aware it was happening and considered a serious problem (most employees never even heard about it). We did later wind down most development in China. While there were several reasons, that was a major (though publicized) one.
AFAICT, my briefing wasn't 'mandatory' from the govt. It was coordinated through our IT dept but was definitely considered high-priority from a company perspective. I hadn't heard about the mtg request initially, probably because my admin team was doing the usual schedule filtering and prioritization. But I got a direct call from the IT VP on my cell in the evening to bring it to my attention so I could get it prioritized to happen before I went to China.
The company isn't FAANG / Mag 7 but definitely in the next tier down. You've almost certainly used more than one of the products and several of the technologies. With user bases in the tens of millions, we were definitely a top tier target and I had a C-level title even though I never had (or would want) access to root keys or anything like that.
In big public companies there's a group of a few dozen execs who have special stock trading restrictions above employees, managers and even directors and I was in that group, so I was used to getting some special extra security precautions. Stuff like IT coming to my house to install a special hardware VPN gateway (back before they were more commonplace). And those precautions were just insider trading and general IP concerns. So the call about the FBI mtg wasn't totally out of the blue.
> American technical economy as a valuable asset to the state
My sense is it was really from that kind of mindset. They consider securing American technological and economic leadership a crucial mission. In general, I think the public under-appreciates just are large a priority the 'economic mission' is for intelligence agencies of all countries - and the US was probably late to scaling that game behind the Russians, Chinese and even some European allies.
While it's fun to hear about the cool 'state secret' and 'spy vs spy' stuff like stealing weapons system designs, a lot of intelligence is pretty boring stuff about economic competitiveness and advantage in non-defense related industries like finance, consumer packaged goods, heavy machinery etc.
Jensen isn't dumb, and in his position, nearly everyone he meets wants something from him; whether info, insight or a favor. Many of them dutifully report back to someone, whether an employer, government or just their social media friends, their impressions of which way Nvidia might be leaning, when the next product allocations might be released, etc. So it's unlikely Jensen ever fully trusted her, because it's been well over a decade since he could fully trust anyone not in his immediate family or an old friend. It's hard to appreciate just how much daily life is different for someone like Jensen but I once got a peek. For several years I was a skip level below the CEO of a high-profile F500 valley tech company. I've been part of the core team on the jet with the CEO during an Asia trip packed with keynotes, key customer/govt mtgs, media and analyst interviews. Everyone wants something from the CEO (including every employee on his team). And Jensen is CEO of the most valuable company on earth, so all that's on steroids. He's learned to be guarded to some extent with everyone outside his immediate family and old friends.
And I had a first-hand experience which makes me think Jensen suspected her almost immediately. Over a decade ago, back when I had a C-level title at a well-known F500 valley company. We had operations in China then and before going there the first time, I got a mandatory in-person briefing from actual FBI MiBs all about the incredibly subtle long-games that intelligence agencies run on foreign execs, not just in China but in other countries too. They had concrete case studies of real execs like me getting played (and not just by honeypots). It was very persuasive. On my trips to China I took all the common sense precautions they recommended but, sadly, I never detected Mata Hari making a play for me. :-) Probably not quite a big enough fish to warrant my own heat-seeking hottie.
BUT... a few years later, I did a fair number of high-profile keynote speeches at major business conferences. Unlike pure tech conferences, these often had audiences of a couple thousand people, big 50 foot screens, etc. The company started sending me to these because, unlike our CEO, I was unusually good at public speaking, despite actually being an introvert off-stage. After one such conference for C-level execs of public corps held in a major European capital, I ended up hanging out overnight before meetings elsewhere in Europe the next day. That evening there was an off-site banquet dinner and magic show. I went since I had no plans and dig magic. It was open seating and I grabbed seat at a table for 8 filling with random attendees, a VP from Unilever, a C-something from Airbus, etc. When I finished chatting with the Airbus guy about the A300, I turned to see the open seat next to me now had a rather tall and attractive early 30s blonde. She introduced herself as the marketing director for a St. Petersburg tech company, raved about how much she loved my keynote and proceeded to ask a lot of pretty insightful questions about it (note: this was before the Ukraine war).
Over dinner she continued to inquire about my work, background, etc and was overall quite charming. I didn't mind as I'm partial to blondes anyway and if someone who looks like Margot Robbie's sister has interesting questions about my area of expertise, who am I to complain? As dinner progressed to the show, she grew increasingly friendly, asking a long question just as we adjourned to the hotel buses, so ended up taking the seat next to mine. Back in the hotel lobby she asked if I wanted to grab a drink in the bar but I was already starting to think this level of attention was a bit much. Sure, I was 'stage famous' that day due to being the center of attention at the conference for an hour but... yeah, women as good looking as her aren't exactly common at 2,000 euro business conferences and the ones who are there tend to get a fair amount of unwanted attention, so they've learned how to project a professional demeanor that keeps things focused on business. I understand this dynamic from my wife - who's a tech executive with an MBA (at another valley company), a decade younger than me and also a quite attractive blonde. So, I very politely told my new Russian friend I had an early flight and was going upstairs to call my wife back in the US before my daughter left for school.
When I told my wife this amusing story, including my suspicion that my lovely new friend may have been a Russian honeypot on a random troll for relationships with C-level execs in global tech companies making widely used tech products - either for access, info or blackmail leverage - my wife dutifully disagreed insisting that I'm "totally hot enough to still 'pull'." I replied "Please never stop believing that... but when I first introduced you to my friends they all agreed you were 'way out of my league', so I'm under no illusions." :-)
Sadly, I'll never know the truth about my Soviet Sweetie (the nickname my wife kidded me with for weeks after). I'm sure she wasn't a high-end call girl, since you can't get into that conference without company creds and 2K euro. Bottom line, if I immediately suspected that maybe her interest wasn't purely in slammin' the sheets with my hot self", that thought surely occurred to Jensen because he's certainly had much more extensive counter-intelligence briefings and has had a far bigger target on his back every single day. Even if she wasn't a Chinese government spy, he knew part of her interest in their relationship was power, access and business advantage for her company. But Jensen bleeds green. I can totally imagine him privately telling a friend, "Bro, hot side-pussy's one thing, but business is business." Like many of Jensen's transactions lately, I'm pretty sure he got a lot more than he gave. :-)