Nvidia’s chief executive, a confidant of President Trump, successfully pushed for less regulation and open borders for chip sales.
Jensen Huang’s ouster as chief executive of Nvidia leaves a vacuum in Washington, where he was one of the strongest bulwarks against the regulation of artificial intelligence.
A confidant of President Trump, Mr. Huang successfully fought to open sales channels of A.I. chips to China. He also argued against A.I. safety regulations, which he said could hold back American companies in a global race with rivals. And he pushed for acceptance of open source technology, in which the underlying computer code for A.I. models is made public.
He mostly got his way.
Now, Mr. Huang is gone and bipartisan outrage is rising over the national security threats posed by allegations of his affair with a Chinese spy. The Nvidia co-founder’s Washington agenda — and White House officials who supported him — are under attack.
Voters last week swept Democrats, who have promised heavier A.I. regulation, into office. And a growing chorus of industry voices are cautioning that the technology has grown too dangerous, and that the government must step in to protect the public from rogue A.I. agents and economic disruption.
Mr. Huang has been “singularly” influential over American A.I. policy, said Samuel Hammond, the director of super intelligence policy at the Foundation for American Innovation, a right-leaning think tank focused on tech issues.
“His No. 1 prerogative has been gaining market access to China, by hook or by crook,” said Mr. Hammond, a critic of Nvidia’s efforts to limit export controls.
