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France 24
7 hours ago
- France 24
Jensen Huang, AI visionary in a leather jacket
The unassuming 62-year-old draws stadium crowds of more than 10,000 people as his company's products push the boundaries of artificial intelligence. Chips designed by Nvidia, known as graphics cards or GPUs (Graphics Processing Units), are essential in developing the generative artificial intelligence powering technology like ChatGPT. Big tech's insatiable appetite for Nvidia's GPUs, which sell for tens of thousands of dollars each, has catapulted the California chipmaker beyond $4 trillion in market valuation, the first company ever to surpass that mark. Nvidia's meteoric rise has boosted Huang's personal fortune to $150 billion -- making him one of the world's richest people -- thanks to the roughly 3.5 percent stake he holds in the company he founded three decades ago with two friends in a Silicon Valley diner. In a clear demonstration of his clout, he recently convinced President Donald Trump to lift restrictions on certain GPU exports to China, despite the fact that China is locked in a battle with the United States for AI supremacy. "That was brilliantly done," said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a governance professor at Yale University. Huang was able to explain to Trump that "having the world using a US tech platform as the core protocol is definitely in the interest of this country" and won't help the Chinese military, Sonnenfeld said. Early life Born in Taipei in 1963, Jensen Huang (originally named Jen-Hsun) embodies the American success story. At nine years old, he was sent away with his brother to boarding school in small-town Kentucky. His uncle recommended the school to his Taiwanese parents believing it to be a prestigious institution, when it was actually a school for troubled youth. Too young to be a student, Huang boarded there but attended a nearby public school alongside the children of tobacco farmers. With his poor English, he was bullied and forced to clean toilets -- a two-year ordeal that transformed him. "We worked really hard, we studied really hard, and the kids were really tough," he recounted in an interview with US broadcaster NPR. But "the ending of the story is I loved the time I was there," Huang said. Leather jacket and tattoo Brought home by his parents, who had by then settled in the northwestern US state of Oregon, he graduated from university at just 20 and joined AMD, then LSI Logic, to design chips -- his passion. But he wanted to go further and founded Nvidia in 1993 to "solve problems that normal computers can't," using semiconductors powerful enough to handle 3D graphics, as he explained on the "No Priors" podcast. Nvidia created the first GPU in 1999, riding the intersection of video games, data centers, cloud computing, and now, generative AI. Always dressed in a black T-shirt and leather jacket, Huang sports a Nvidia logo tattoo and has a taste for sports cars. But it's his relentless optimism, low-key personality and lack of political alignment that sets him apart from the likes of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Unlike them, Huang was notably absent from Trump's inauguration ceremony. "He backpedals his own aura and has the star be the technology rather than himself," observed Sonnenfeld, who believes Huang may be "the most respected of all today's tech titans." One former high-ranking Nvidia employee described him to AFP as "the most driven person" he'd ever met. Street food On visits to his native Taiwan, Huang is treated like a megastar, with fans crowding him for autographs and selfies as journalists follow him to the barber shop and his favorite night market. "He has created the phenomena because of his personal charm," noted Wayne Lin of Witology Market Trend Research Institute. "A person like him must be very busy and his schedule should be full every day meeting big bosses. But he remembers to eat street food when he comes to Taiwan," he said, calling Huang "unusually friendly." Nvidia is a tight ship and takes great care to project a drama-free image of Huang. But the former high-ranking employee painted a more nuanced picture, describing a "very paradoxical" individual who is fiercely protective of his employees but also capable, within Nvidia's executive circle, of "ripping people to shreds" over major mistakes or poor choices.
France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
US environment agency axes nearly a quarter of workforce
In January, the federal agency tasked with ensuring clean air, land and water counted 16,155 employees. Under the third round of "Deferred Resignation Program" cuts, that figure will drop to 12,448, a 22.9 percent reduction. The cuts are made up of employees who took deferred resignation -- a program pushed by former Trump administration chief cost-cutter Elon Musk -- along with those who opted for early retirement or were laid off. "EPA has taken a close look at our operations to ensure the agency is better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human health and the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback," EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement. "This reduction in force will ensure we can better fulfill that mission while being responsible stewards of your hard-earned tax dollars," he added. The statement added the cuts would generate $748.8 million in savings. The White House is seeking to slash the EPA's budget by 54 percent to $4.2 billion for Fiscal Year 2026. Friday's announcement drops staffing to below the 12,856 full-time positions outlined in the president's proposed budget. The agency's scientific research arm -- the Office of Research and Development -- is also being dismantled, replaced by a smaller Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions. According to the EPA, the new office will work to eliminate backlogs in reviewing hundreds of chemicals and thousands of pesticides, while developing a new strategy to address so-called "forever chemicals," or PFAS. Zeldin has been at the forefront of Trump's push to aggressively deregulate pollution protections and "unleash" fossil fuels, drawing fierce backlash from scientists and environment advocates alike. Earlier this month the EPA suspended 139 employees after they signed a scathing open letter accusing Zeldin of pushing policies hazardous to both people and the planet. © 2025 AFP
France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
What's in the EU's two-trillion-euro budget bazooka?
Seeking to balance the European Union's key priorities, Brussels wants the next long-term budget to bolster the bloc's economy, support farmers and plough billions more into defence -- all while paying off its debts. The battle lines are now drawn for two years of fraught negotiations between the EU parliament and member states -- which provide the lion's share of funds along with tax-based resources and custom duties. Don't come to us for more money, EU capitals have already told the European Commission. "In a time where national budgets are under great economic pressure, the answer can't be more money and a bigger budget," Sweden's EU Minister Jessica Rosencrantz said. Here are the key parts of the spending proposals: Competitiveness fund Beyond security, the EU's biggest priority is to bolster its competitiveness and help European businesses catch up with US and Chinese rivals. The author of a seminal report last year, Mario Draghi, delivered hard truths: to see real change, the EU needs yearly investment of at least 750-800 billion euros. Without stretching that far, commission chief Ursula Von der Leyen has proposed a 451-billion-euro competitiveness fund that will focus on the clean and digital transition, health as well as defence and space. Brussels also proposed establishing a fund of up to 100 billion euros for Ukraine's reconstruction. Agriculture Von der Leyen is steeled for a fight with the bloc's farmers over a proposed overhaul of the EU's massive subsidies scheme known as the common agricultural policy (CAP). At least 300 billion euros would be dedicated to support farmers in the next budget, but some funding would move to other spending columns. The sector fears this will mean less aid while France, whose farmers are some of CAP's biggest beneficiaries, accused the commission of "turning its back" on agriculture. Brussels, however, stresses the CAP will still have its own rules and earmarked financial resources, especially direct aid to farmers. Climate With all the focus on security and competition, there were fears the environment would be sidelined in the budget -- despite heatwaves, forest fires and flooding caused by human-caused climate change wreaking havoc across Europe in recent years. The commission said 35 percent of the overall budget -- around 650 billion euros -- would be dedicated to the climate and achieving the EU's environmental aims. Some environment groups slammed the target as vague, while the World Wildlife Fund warned it risked "defunding vital nature and climate action" if, as planned, a key environment programme is absorbed into the larger competitiveness fund. Climate think tank E3G however saw the 35-percent target as a sign of commitment to the green ambitions of the commission's previous 2019-2024 term, while insisting on the need for sufficient funds to pursue its climate goals. Rule of law The EU proposes that future funding will be more closely linked to democratic values, telling member states: protect the judiciary's independence and maintain freedoms if you want money. "No EU money without the respect of rule of law," budget chief Piotr Serafin said. Hungary, which has often been the target of the EU's ire and of infringement proceedings for rule-of-law violations, was not happy. "It's a tool for political and ideological pressuring," said the country's EU minister, Janos Boka, calling the notion a "non-starter" for Budapest. Beyond Europe The EU's eyes are not only on itself. Brussels proposed a more than 200-billion-euro fund for investments and aid abroad -- welcomed by humanitarian groups after the deep cuts to US foreign aid under President Donald Trump. This also includes the EU's efforts to protect its borders through stepped-up partnerships with countries in the Middle East and North Africa, despite criticism this can amount to throwing money at authoritarian countries with poor human rights records. © 2025 AFP
