Have a spooky weekend!
NVIDIA'S JENSEN MET WITH ALLEGED CHINESE ASSET
The New York Times reported Thursday that US intelligence agencies surveilled Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen and former top executive at Singapore data center firm Megaspeed, and concluded she was an intelligence asset passing information to Beijing. That surveillance turned up repeated contact with an American citizen later identified as Jensen Huang, no relation, the man who decides who on this planet gets AI compute. Nvidia's answer is that she was a customer contact and nothing more. Spokesman John Rizzo said the diversion allegations against the cloud firm were "thoroughly investigated and debunked last year," and the company noted Jensen meets thousands of customer executives annually. Jensen told Bloomberg that Nvidia reviewed every GPU deployment at the firm and "counted every one," a sentence that holds up right until somebody asks a second question. Megaspeed's Malaysian sister company bought at least $4.8 billion in Nvidia-based equipment in under two years, which the Times called unusual for a small, obscure company. The Times did not report that Jensen knew about any intelligence activity, though some senior Trump officials reportedly doubt he was fully in the dark. Trump was briefed roughly a year ago and took no action, reportedly to avoid disrupting chip sales and the China trade relationship. Mediaite is playing that inaction as a scandal ahead of his China trip. Nvidia is playing it as nothing. The White House, CIA and NSA all declined to comment, which is its own kind of statement.
Sources (3)
- cnbc.com - Nvidia responds to report Jensen Huang was target of Chinese asset, says diversion allegations were 'investigated and debunked'
- engadget.com - NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang may have been the target of a Chinese government spy
- mediaite.com - Bombshell Report Claims White House Did Nothing After Chinese Spy Targeted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang
THIEVES TOOK 30 TONS OF WALNUTS OUT OF THE BRONX
New York State Police say that on Monday, March 2, roughly 60,000 pounds of shelled walnuts worth about $50,000 were stolen from two 52-foot trailers in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. Thirty tons. Out of the neighborhood that feeds most of New York City. Cops have been very specific about what left and very quiet about everything else. The shipment was palletized boxes of packaged walnuts headed for commercial distribution. Investigators have not said what time it happened, how the trailers were opened, or how anybody moved 30 tons of snack food through the Bronx without one person asking a single question. Troopers did go out of their way to note that cargo theft is serious and wrecks supply chains, which is true and also exactly what you say when you have no suspects. Run the numbers and this crew committed a felony for about 83 cents a pound, before the split. Now they have to find buyers for 30 tons of nuts. State police are asking food distributors and vendors to report anyone pushing large quantities of packaged walnuts at prices well below market value, so the official red flag for organized crime in New York right now is a walnut that seems too affordable. Tips go to Troop NYC at (212) 459-7800.
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SPAINISH RAIL CATASTROPHE LEAVES AT LEAST 69 PEOPLE DEAD
At 8:30 Wednesday morning, a computer malfunction knocked out the safety system across a 39-mile stretch of Spain's Madrid-Seville high-speed line, and six trains stopped where they were. That is the system doing the one thing you want it to do when it breaks. Twenty-three minutes later, a Renfe AVE carrying 397 passengers hit the back of a stationary Iryo train carrying 147. At least 69 people are dead. Fifty were still hospitalized Thursday, fifteen of them critical. The middle part is where Spain's government runs out of road. When the system fails, the control center takes over, and the control center cleared the Renfe train to resume with no speed restriction while a stop signal was still active on that line. Transport Minister Oscar Puente called the order "inexplicable" and said flatly that it was the wrong decision. He also said the drivers were not at fault, which leaves exactly one room full of screens holding the bag. Investigators are still checking the speed. Puente said it may have been as high as 124 mph. This is the second mass-casualty collision on this line this year, same two operators both times. January's crash near Adamuz killed 46. That is nine months, one corridor, and 115 people. Spain is observing three days of national mourning through Saturday, and protesters have already turned up in Madrid, which is not a mystery either.
PATRICK STEWART DEAD AT 86
Sir Patrick Stewart died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86. His longtime spokesperson said he went after a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia, in the care of his wife Sunny Ozell, surrounded by family and friends, live music, prayer, tears and laughter. The family asked for donations to Alzheimer's research instead of flowers. The resume is ridiculous. Yorkshire kid, bald by 19, spent a year at a local paper writing obituaries before his boss made him choose journalism or acting. According to one of his brothers, he used to skip work for theater rehearsals and then invent the stories he was supposed to be covering. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966 and spent the next six decades getting paid to deliver absurd science fiction dialogue in the most serious voice in England. He never took the graceful exit. In a July interview with TV Insider he said he couldn't imagine retiring. One of his last credits was voicing a talking pig's head called Pigtrick Stewart in the Riz Ahmed comedy Bait. And Marvel, a company that does not process resignations, has him back as Professor X in Avengers: Doomsday on December 18, his final completed film. Variety counted it as his ninth turn as Charles Xavier. Hugh Jackman called him one of the greats of stage and screen. Marvel Studios called him a singular talent and a true gentleman. Sixty-odd years in that business and nobody had a bad word.
GOOGLE SPENT $51 BILLION IN THREE MONTHS AND LOST $500 BILLION IN ONE DAY
Alphabet dropped its Q3 numbers Wednesday night, and by Thursday's close the market had quietly removed about $500 billion from the company. The stock fell roughly 13%, the worst single day since Google went public in 2004. The old record was an 11.63% faceplant in March 2020, back when the excuse was a global pandemic. The top line was not the problem. Revenue hit $127.6 billion, up 25%, and Google Cloud more than doubled to $30.7 billion. Then investors kept reading. Alphabet spent $51.4 billion on property and equipment in three months, up from $24 billion a year earlier, which is roughly what the company spent in all of 2024. Free cash flow came in at negative $9.07 billion, the second negative quarter in a row. Long-term debt climbed from $46.5 billion at the end of 2025 to $125.1 billion. CFO Anat Ashkenazi then got on the call and told analysts capex will increase significantly in 2027, with details to come on the Q4 call. Full-year 2026 guidance stayed at $195 billion to $205 billion. Meanwhile search ad revenue grew 12%, slowing from 17% in Q2, which is the business paying for all of it. Earnings per share landed at $2.12 against the $3.02 analysts wanted, dinged by an $8.7 billion loss on equity securities, mostly the SpaceX stake.
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