Behind Musk's Support for Jensen Huang, Computing Power Costs More Than Favors

Jensen Huang's position remains unconfirmed, but Musk simply cannot afford to lose the compute race.

Author: David, TechFlow

Editor's Note:

As outsiders speculated whether Jensen Huang might resign due to dual extramarital affairs, Elon Musk publicly caught the ball with a reply: “It’s my honor.” This was more than just polite maneuvering from tech leaders on edge; behind it lies the deep commercial and political binding between the two companies. SpaceX has just finalized an approximately $40 billion GPU leaseback agreement, betting its future computing power entirely on NVIDIA, while NVIDIA holds over $21 billion in SpaceX shares. Amid the complex interplay involving Trump, Congress, and chip exports, Musk’s defense of Huang was, at its core, protecting his own lifeline for computing power.

While outside speculation ran wild over whether Huang would be forced to hand over the reins as CEO, Musk stepped up to play along.

On social media, someone called out to Musk, suggesting he recruit Huang into his ranks. Musk did not dodge, directly replying, “It’s my honor.” To outsiders, this resembled the mutual appreciation between two Silicon Valley titans in a time of crisis.

Just days prior, 63-year-old Huang sent a letter to all employees admitting to an extramarital affair, after which NVIDIA’s board announced the launch of an independent investigation. Before the storm had subsided, media outlets successively reported a second inappropriate relationship with a subordinate vice president, alongside inquiries from U.S. Congress members targeting chip exports and national security risks. Wall Street even began circulating rumors that the board had met to discuss his fate.

Huang’s crisis is rapidly evolving from a matter of private morality into a political storm encompassing corporate governance and White House regulatory scrutiny.

Musk’s decision to weigh in at this exact moment was by no means merely an act of loyalty. Beneath this joke lies a massive computing power bet that neither side can afford to lose, and an interest web already tightly stitched together.

$40 Billion in Compute Power and $21 Billion in Equity: Two Giants Already Lockstep

The reason Musk is more anxious than anyone else over Huang’s position is that his AI business empire has staked everything on NVIDIA’s roadmap.

This year, SpaceX and its absorbed xAI cluster explicitly announced that their data centers will exclusively adopt NVIDIA architecture, particularly the next-generation Vera Rubin chips. To support massive model training and space-air-ground integrated computing, Musk recently finalized a massive GPU leaseback agreement worth approximately $40 billion. Spearheaded by Wall Street asset management giants like Apollo Global Management, the equipment delivery is scheduled to begin in batches from the first half of 2027.

This is far from a standard procurement contract; it is a long-term bet on capacity. In a cycle where advanced compute is severely scarce, securing top-tier chip quotas and having data centers powered on first often hinges on a single word between the leaders.

NVIDIA, too, has long ceased to be merely a hardware seller.

Through early strategic investments in xAI, NVIDIA holds approximately 122.8 million shares of SpaceX on its balance sheet. As of the end of the second quarter this year, the book value of these stakes exceeds $21 billion, representing a heavy cornerstone in NVIDIA’s external investment portfolio.

A rare two-way closed loop of capital and product has formed between these two giants. Musk uses funds raised from Wall Street to lock in Huang’s production capacity on a large scale, while NVIDIA reverse-seeps its earned profits and capital back into equity stakes in Musk’s rocket company.

In such a highly interlocked structure, Jensen Huang is not just a CEO, but the trust hub across the entire fulfillment chain. If NVIDIA is forced to change leadership or becomes mired in lengthy internal governance struggles, any fine-tuning of priorities or delay in delivering the next-generation architecture will see Musk choked first.

Allies at the White House Table: Neither Can Afford Supply Chain Shakeup

Beyond business ledgers, the two have also aligned themselves within the same camp on Washington’s political landscape.

During the recent U.S. election cycle, Musk funneled over $291 million into Political Action Committees supporting Trump and related organizations, becoming a key financier for the Republican Party’s return to the White House.

NVIDIA likewise understands the survival philosophy of Washington. At a sensitive juncture marked by subtle maneuvers in U.S. chip export controls targeting China, NVIDIA pledged a $25 million donation for the White House banquet hall construction project, tying with Apple at the highest tier.

Thus, when Huang’s controversy first surfaced, even amidst accusations of espionage and export loopholes, Trump immediately went public to defend him as a “good man,” explicitly stating he did not believe Huang had knowledge of any so-called intelligence activities.

This stance was no accident. Controls over advanced chips in Washington are fracturing anew. With shifts in congressional seats, some lawmakers are demanding special investigations into chip transshipment and Southeast Asian data centers, pushing Huang straight into the crosshairs of bipartisan maneuvering.

For Musk, Trump’s trust is the moat protecting his policy influence, while a NVIDIA leader who can communicate directly with the White House and withstand extreme congressional pressure serves as the bedrock for maintaining the stability of the domestic U.S. AI supply chain.

In the current compute-power chess game, whoever controls chip capacity and can clearly explain the industry logic in the Oval Office holds far more concrete value than an entrepreneur’s moral character.

The Machines Cannot Stop; Morality Takes a Back Seat

Looking back at Musk’s “It’s my honor,” it is less an olive branch tossed to Huang, and more a distant endorsement of their alliance.

The details of extramarital affairs will be magnified by the media, and violations of superior-subordinate relationships will be left to external lawyers to investigate, but against a compute arms race involving hundreds of billions, these remain mere interludes.

Musk is acutely aware that every day global state-of-the-art AI clusters sit idle, depreciation and power costs mount into astronomical figures; without NVIDIA under Huang’s control, the entire Silicon Valley chip scheduling calendar would need to be rewritten.

Washington politicians care about hearings and geopolitical allegations, independent board members care about compliance processes and reputational risk, but tech oligarchs sitting at the compute table only care whether they can get power turned on as scheduled next week.

Musk made his position crystal clear with a casual joke. In this game of compute and power, as long as the machines keep running, Huang’s seat is by no means solely his concern.

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