公司首席执行官兼联合创始人黄仁勋发现，当你可能是全球最重要的CEO时，对大多数人而言可能算作个人判断失误的行为，可能迅速演变成全球范围的企业危机。
Corp. chief executive officer and cofounder Jensen Huang has discovered that when you’re probably the world’s most important CEO, what could be considered a personal lapse in judgment for most can quickly spiral into a corporate crisis on a global scale.
这本不该让人感到震惊：黄仁勋本应明白，在他这种层级上不存在私人生活。但他最近承认与一名涉嫌中国间谍的人员有婚外情，这一事实的影响远超黄本人及其所执掌的公司；它可能为整个人工智能生态系统注入新的不确定性。
This should not have come as a huge shock: Huang should have known that there is no such thing as a private life at his level. But his recent admission that he had an extramarital affair with a suspected Chinese spy has repercussions that extend far beyond Huang and the company he runs; it threatens to inject a new level of uncertainty into the entire artificial intelligence ecosystem.
黄仁勋案的赌注可能极其巨大，但其根本问题并不新鲜。即使在#MeToo 反弹和企业撤出多元、平等与包容（DEI）之际，董事会在CEO不将恋情与业务混为一谈这一领域仍基本保持坚定。若你是大老板，与下属发生婚外情或与商业伙伴保持未披露的关系，往往会导致被解雇。（参见：麦当劳公司、诺福克南方公司、雀巢公司、科尔公司）如果你还对董事会撒谎，这一点更是双倍适用。
The stakes in Huang’s case might be massive, but the underlying issue is nothing new. Even amid the #MeToo backlash and corporate retreat from DEI, CEOs not mixing romance with business is one area where boards have largely stood firm. If you are the big boss, an affair with a subordinate or an undisclosed relationship with a business associate is a good way to get yourself axed. (See: McDonald’s Corp., Norfolk Southern Corp., Nestle SA, Kohl’s Corp.) And that’s doubly true if you lie to your board about it.
这跟企业遵循某种新的道德清晰度毫无关系。这纯粹是商业决策。这类不当行为被视为更大问题的潜在预警信号。其逻辑是这样的：如果一位CEO愿意在生活的某个领域违反规则，那么他还会在哪些其他领域违反规则？（我这里故意用“他”；卷入这些丑闻的老板绝大多数是男性。）市场现在正在质疑本应掌舵AI革命的那个人的判断力。
This really has nothing to do with companies adhering to some sort of new moral clarity. It’s purely a business decision. These kinds of misdeeds are taken as potential warning signs of bigger problems. The thinking goes like this: If a CEO is willing to break the rules in this one area of his life, where else would he be willing to break them? (And I use “he” intentionally here; the bosses embroiled in these scandals have been overwhelmingly men.) The market is now questioning the judgment of the man who was supposed to be at the helm of the AI revolution.
这件事——及其对国家安全的潜在影响——对黄仁勋来说更具破坏性，原因在于他精心塑造的个人品牌，即“房间里的成年人”。他一直试图在AI狂热中把自己塑造为稳重、负责任的掌舵者。为了支撑这一叙事，黄仁勋经常强调家庭的重要性，尤其是他妻子的重要性。（他在一份全员备忘录中向他们和员工道歉。）鉴于黄仁勋的显赫地位，他显然是潜在间谍活动的目标。
What makes the affair — and its potential implications for national security — even more damaging for Huang is the cultivation of his personal brand as the grownup in the room. He always tried to position himself as a steady, responsible hand amid the AI hysteria. To support that narrative, Huang often touted the importance of his family and especially his wife. (He apologized to them and his employees in a company-wide memo.) Because of Huang’s prominence, he was clearly a target for potential espionage.
但这是他本应知道的事情。他本应更清楚，不应一开始就公开否认这段关系有任何不妥之处，称他们的互动都是“完全正常，并不罕见”，从而让自己陷入更深的困境。在这类案件中，真相总会大白。现在，黄仁勋还引发了一个棘手的问题：他的董事会知道什么，何时知道的。正如我的同事戴夫·李所指出的，黄仁勋的安保团队每年花费400万美元，他不太可能轻易溜出去幽会。
But that’s something he should have known. He also should have known better than to dig himself into a deeper hole by initially publicly denying there was anything untoward about the relationship, saying their interactions were all “completely normal and not unusual.”In these cases, the truth always comes out. And now Huang has also raised the dicey question of what his board knew and when it knew it. As my colleague Dave Lee has noted, it seems unlikely that Huang, whose security detail costs $4 million a year, could easily sneak off for a rendezvous.
如果不具备高度的冒险精神和打破常规的特质，就无法达到黄仁勋这样的成功高度。这些特质在商界，尤其是科技界，已成为我们推崇的对象。但这可能引发一个危险的循环。正如我之前所写，权力会让人认为自己只会收获大胆行为的红利。研究表明，权力感越强的人，越倾向于相信自己能避开航班颠簸，或在度假时避免遇到危险的蛇。
You don’t reach Huang’s level of success without a high degree of risk taking and rule breaking. These are traits we’ve come to celebrate in the business world and especially in tech. But this can lead to a dangerous cycle. As I’ve written before, power can make people think they will only ever reap the benefits of daring behavior. Studies have shown that people with a higher sense of power are more likely to believe they’ll avoid hitting turbulence on a flight or encounter a dangerous snake on vacation.
这就是董事会发挥作用的地方。CEO 权力越大，董事传递“领导者不凌驾于规则之上——他们也无法免疫隐喻中的蛇和颠簸”这一信息就越关键。但我们常看到相反的情况发生：CEO 的成功被视为给予更多自由而非更多监管的许可证。（值得注意的是，或许拥有最长“缰绳”的老板埃隆·马斯克，已支持黄仁勋不可替代的观点。）
This is where a board comes in. As a CEO becomes more powerful, the more crucial it becomes for directors to send the message that leaders are not above the rules — that they’re not immune to the metaphorical snakes and turbulence. But we often see the inverse happening: A CEO’s success is viewed as a license to give more latitude rather than more oversight. (It’s worth noting that Elon Musk, the boss with perhaps the longest leash, has backed the argument that Huang is irreplaceable.)
有迹象表明，黄仁勋在英伟达可能获得了越来越大的自由度。董事会似乎没有明确的黄仁勋继任者人选，而黄仁勋已表示希望继续担任该职位数十年。彭博社报道称，黄仁勋“在他周围建立了一种非正式的组织架构，摒弃了传统的层级制。相反，他的直接下属被赋予迅速执行其决策的任务。”这“造成了一种局面：没有替代者准备好接手并接管黄仁勋那不知疲倦的日程安排。”
There are signs Huang may have been given more and more free rein at Nvidia. The board seems to have no clear heir apparent for Huang, who has said he wants to continue in his role for decades. Bloomberg News has reported that Huang built “an informal organizational structure around him that eschews a conventional hierarchy. Instead, his direct reports are tasked with rapidly implementing his decisions.”That has “created a situation where there’s no replacement ready to step in and take over Huang’s relentless schedule.”
现在，公众和投资者依赖这个同一个董事会，报告其发起的独立调查结果。“虽然董事会没有理由相信国家安全或英伟达机密遭到泄露，但董事会的调查将审查所有可用信息，”董事会在一份声明中表示。对于一个才刚刚开始的调查，这听起来离结论未免太近了。
Now the public and investors are relying on this same board to report on the independent investigation it’s initiated. “While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the Board's inquiry will examine all available information,” it said in a statement. That sounds far too close to a conclusion for an investigation that has barely even begun.
也许董事会觉得，除非发表声明，否则别无选择。因为英伟达围绕一个人打造了一家万亿美元规模的公司，任何对黄仁勋的威胁都可能危及整个企业。无论官方调查结果如何，董事会都应自问，自己究竟是如何陷入这种境地的。
Perhaps the board feels like it has no choice to say anything otherwise. Because Nvidia has built a multi-trillion-dollar company around one person, any threat to Huang risks the entire enterprise. Whatever the official investigation finds, the board should ask itself how it ended up in this position.