Espionage aside, let's not forget that he was having an affair with a customer company's executive. If that's not a massive professional fuckup I don't know what is.

That's called "business", look it up.

Look it up where?

up OP arse I would guess

To be fair he probably spends all of his "free" time working. As the founder and CEO of it there is no personal or professional life. It's all one life.

It's not personal when you're in a certain role. You are not just representing your company, as a CEO you are practically embodying the company. It is the ultimate position, and it's compensated accordingly. If you want a personal life, resign from the job of CEO of the world's biggest and most strategically important company.

That is a very American take. I think there are other countries (e.g. Germany, the Netherlands) where there is a much stricter separation between the professional and private persona. Nvidia is american, and so is Jensen, so i guess it is OK to judge him by this standard. Just saying that different cultures judge this behavior differently.

Yeah you say that then your country elects a serial-cheater pedophile as president; I'm not sure you are so representative of your country customs as you think.

> No excuses or rationalizations here, but: Do we fire people for cheating on their spouse? Seems like a private, family matter.

It is not so clear, if this is about his character and can he be trusted. This is evidence that someone is capable for lying and doing something that might not be in line with company ethics either. I don't think we can assume from humans that "he lies only in his private life, but can be totally trusted on business side".

> Do we fire people for cheating on their spouse?

Yes, in many places, absolutely. Bad decisions in your personal live suggest bad decisions in your professional life.

People who speed take reckless actions endangering others, therefore we should fire anybody who gets a speeding ticket. Thoughts?

Now take the same point and apply it to every other crime, misdemeanor, and breaking of rules. Should companies really operate based on that? Or should we maybe draw a boundary around professional life and only consider the professional life?

If your speeding ends up harming others and it comes to light then you will probably get fired yeah.

Most CEOs are gone the moment any affair comes to light, nevermind one supposedly with a Chinese spy.

What absolutely ridiculous places are these? Do you also get fired for lying to a friend, or wasting your personal money?

Does it work the other way as well, so you're forced to divorce your spouse if you make a bad business decision?

Irresponsible enough with that money, and you lose govt. clearance and can't pass background checks (even civilian ones).

I think the issue is normally more that these might expose you to blackmail or extortion.

But that's ironically a non issue now that's it's front page press...lol.

It's a bit like celebrities who release embarassing photos themselves, to bypass hackers leaking them. (To be clear, I don't think the photos should be out either way, your private matters should stay private, celebrity or not, and it's horrid to have it dragged out in public. But I do admire the ballsiness in just releasing it themselves. And in this post-modern era, perversely some people seem to benefit from the exposure)

I would argue places with high trust and high accountability.

I am realizing that this is very foreign to some people and cultures. Among those who value honor, reputation, and trust the world is different.

He did sell billions of dollars of chips to the shell company his spy girlfriend worked for, violating export controls. So there is that.

> Do we fire people for cheating on their spouse?

Nowadays, we make them president.

When they are the CEO of multi-trillion dollar, geopolitically important companies, and when we are talking about spies of geopolitical adversaries? Yes, absolutely.

In fact, the affair was less important. Even if they were just a very close but unromantic professional relationship it would be a serious scandal.

Most posters in HN don't think "poor corporations are the victims when they are hacked". They think "the corporations should be liable because they did not invest enough in security". This is morally the same.

We don't know that she was a spy.

Hm sure but politicians and world leaders cheat serially on their spouses and we don’t seem to think that’s something they should be held accountable for.

I will repeat myself.

Only shallow and unimportant people are focused on sex and cheating here. The problem is who he was influenced by and who he went on to influence, whether this relationship was romantic or not. This is a problem of judgement and damage control now.

I think every corporate training I've ever taken has made it pretty clear if you had an affair with a vendor and gave them something in exchange you'd be fired as soon as it came to light. I've seen people, even CEOs, fired for affairs at work because of the power dynamics. So the answer is maybe, it depends.

Exactly.

I can't even remember how many times I read a permutation of the following in company trainings:

"Failure to adhere to this policy will result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment, and may also subject the individual to civil or criminal legal proceedings."

IF they're the CEO of the company, yes. That's part of what you sign up for; to be a figurehead; a paragon of excellence for the company.