Julian Gewirtz, who served as senior director for China and Taiwan affairs at the White House National Security Council in the Biden administration, posted on X on November 9 that Huang Jen-Hsun had asked the Huida operations team in the past to "never think about" the contingency plan for a war in the Taiwan Strait. Although Huida's most important chip supply chain is highly dependent on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC), the company reportedly did not even develop a contingency plan for China's blockade or invasion of Taiwan.
Gewirtz believes that recent disputes between Jen-Hsun Huang and Chinese businessman Alice Huang (黄乐) and Singaporean GPU supplier Megaspeed have brought this detail that has received little attention from the outside world back into focus. Because a company with a market capitalization of several trillion US dollars and mastering the core technology of the global AI infrastructure may actually be based on a management philosophy that is unwilling to think head-on about the geopolitical risks in the Taiwan Strait.
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Jen-Hsun Huang once asked the vice president of operations to "never think about" the Taiwan Strait disconnection issue
Gewirtz posted on X on November 9 that Huang Jen-Hsun reportedly instructed the Huida team not to think about contingency planning in the event of a war in Taiwan. Citing Stephen Witt's account in "The Thinking Machine," he pointed out that Huida had no contingency plans for a Chinese blockade or invasion of Taiwan.
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Witt quotes Deb Shoquist, Huida's executive vice president of operations, as saying in the book. When she was asked how Huida could maintain operations if something happened to Taiwan and TSMC, she said: "If something happens to Taiwan and TSMC, the consequences will be so huge. It's almost like someone asking me what I would do if California sank to the bottom of the sea."
Witt also pointed out that Huang asked Shoquist to "never think about this question."
This conversation was not a public speech by Jen-Hsun Huang, but what Witt recorded after interviewing Shoquist. In an interview with "Rest of World" in April 2025, Witt also recounted this experience again, saying that she had directly asked Shoquist, who was responsible for Huida's supply chain management, what would happen if China invaded Taiwan, and the answer she received was that she was asked not to think about this issue because the consequences would be too huge.
Witt criticized Huida's management attitude at the time, believing that Huang may have adopted a strategy of pushing the problem back further: the company did not worry about risks in China and Taiwan, but focused on other businesses.
Huida is highly dependent on TSMC, and the advanced chip supply chain is difficult to shift in the short term.
Gewirtz particularly emphasizes this past incident because Huida’s business model is highly connected to Taiwan’s semiconductor industry. Huida is responsible for designing GPUs and related computing architecture, but advanced chip manufacturing relies heavily on TSMC. In addition to wafer foundry, advanced packaging, server assembly and other key components are also closely related to Taiwan's supply chain.
Huida's supply chain is mainly concentrated in Asia, and uses wafer foundries such as TSMC and Samsung Electronics to produce semiconductor wafers; memory is purchased from SK hynix, Micron and Samsung, and CoWoS is one of the semiconductor packaging technologies it uses. For final product assembly, testing and packaging, Huida also relies on Hon Hai, Wistron and Fabrinet.
Huida also listed geopolitical risks as important operating risks in its annual report, clearly stating that global geopolitical tensions and conflicts, including in China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan, may affect the company's operating strategies, product demand, global market access and profitability.
What's more noteworthy is that Huida directly wrote in the risk factors that the ultimate impact of the company's third-party wafer foundries and other suppliers being concentrated in specific geographical areas is still unclear; even if the company continues to carry out operations continuity and disaster recovery planning, it may not be enough to deal with all emergencies.
The controversy between Huang Le and Megaspeed has once again attracted attention to Huida’s risks in the Taiwan Strait
Gewirtz’s renewed mention of the Taiwan Strait response issue is also related to the recent controversy between Huang Renxun and Chinese businessman Alice Huang (Huang Le). Huang Le was a senior executive at Singapore-based GPU supplier Megaspeed. U.S. intelligence agencies reportedly suspected that she was related to China's Ministry of State Security and may have used her personal relationship with Huang to obtain Huida-related business information.
(Huang Le’s husband has known Huang Renxun for a long time? Analyzing Huida’s smuggling relationship, at least US$7.5 billion in GPUs flowed to China)
The cross-border network established by Huang Le and his family business involves at least US$7.5 billion in Huida GPU shipments, and related chips are said to be supplied to the Chinese market through companies in China, Singapore and other places. Huang admitted to his extramarital affair to employees on November 8, and Huida's board of directors announced the launch of an independent investigation to clarify whether Huang was infiltrated by foreign intelligence operations and whether the company's trade secrets or national security were affected.
Gewirtz believes that this controversy has caused the outside world to re-examine Huang Renxun's attitude towards the Chinese market, Taiwan's supply chain and geopolitical risks.
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