Huang's bad week just got a lot worse

PLUS: Park your car with your Uber app

Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Jensen Huang’s extramarital affair is turning into what the WSJ calls a “national-security nightmare.”

His years-long relationship with Alice Huang, a suspected spy, has now reportedly been tied to billions in Nvidia chip sales to China. That’s on top of an FBI probe, a shareholder lawsuit, and a $190B drop in Nvidia’s market value — and it’s only Tuesday.

In today’s tech rundown:

  • Huang spy scandal gets a $7.5B problem

  • Uber starts selling parking spots

  • The FAA finally ejects the floppy disk

  • SpaceX alums build $749 seawater-to-drinking-water kit

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

NVIDIA

Image source: Wikimedia Commons / Images 2.5

The Rundown: The Information reports that Jensen Huang’s ties to Alice Huang, a suspected spy, helped move $7.5B+ in Nvidia chips into China. That comes on top of an FBI probe Trump confirmed, a shareholder suit, and a $190B market-cap wipeout.

The details:

  • Trump said Huang told him that he had “no idea” Alice Huang was a spy; NYT reported Trump was briefed on the intelligence earlier this year.

  • Nvidia closed down Monday 4.27% at $178.67, wiping out around $190B in its market value.

  • A proposed class action landed 5 minutes after the closing bell, accusing Nvidia and Huang of securities fraud for hiding his ties to a suspected spy.

  • Capitol Hill piled on: Sen. Chris Coons wants a national security probe; House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries backs adding the Senate’s China chip limits to the final defense bill.

Why it matters: Huang, 63, has run Nvidia for all 33 years of its existence, and the company has never had another CEO. Its single share class gives his ~3.5% stake no extra votes, so his job sits with a board already investigating him. In Jan., Democrats take both chambers, along with the subpoena power to put him under oath.

TOGETHER WITH DATADOG

The Rundown: OpenAI adoption dropped 12 points in a year. Datadog analyzed LLM telemetry from 1,000+ customers to reveal what’s actually shifting in enterprise AI: which models are winning, why token costs keep climbing, and what going multi-model means for reliability.

In this report, you’ll learn:

  • How model provider adoption is shifting and why most organizations are multi-model

  • What the doubling of agent framework adoption means for observability

  • Where to find hidden token costs and why prompt caching remains underutilized

UBER

Image source: Uber

The Rundown: Uber is turning its $617M SpotHero acquisition into a new in-app parking service, giving drivers a way to reserve spaces while laying groundwork for where future robotaxis might wait between rides.

The details:

  • Uber Parking is rolling out in 15 U.S. cities, including NYC, LA, Chicago, and San Francisco, with access to SpotHero’s 13K+ locations across 400+ cities.

  • The app shows upfront pricing and lets users filter by garage vs. surface lot, self-park vs. valet; some facilities support QR-code entry or license-plate recognition.

  • Uber One members — 55M+ as of Sept. 30 — earn 10% back in credits for rides and Uber Eats.

  • Uber plans to turn the spots into waiting zones for the dozens of AV companies it partners with, cutting deadheading, or miles driven with no paying passenger.

Why it matters: Uber president Andrew Macdonald said in August that “nobody’s going to own a car” in 15 to 20 years. Until then, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told analysts on Uber’s Q3 call that commuting is one of the company’s largest categories, and parking gives Uber a way to make money from commuters even when they drive themselves.

FAA

Image source: Fernando Lavin / Unsplash

The Rundown: U.S. air traffic control is finally getting rid of the floppy disk. The FAA has started replacing its 1980s-era controller display systems and plans to cover 435 sites by the end of 2028.

The details:

  • E-IDS is a single digital display that puts weather, alerts, airspace restrictions, and pilot reports on one screen. It replaces legacy systems across 400+ facilities.

  • The switch will start in Atlantic City, Nashville, and Greater Rochester airports, plus data hubs in Atlanta and Salt Lake City.

  • Defense contractor Leidos won a ~$292M contract in 2020 to build E-IDS. After delays and a rising cost estimate, the FAA brought development in-house.

  • The FAA is also replacing copper communications lines, old voice switches, paper flight strips, radios, displays, and other aging infrastructure.

Why it matters: Floppies may be the smallest problem on the list: the FAA still runs decades-old Compaq computers using parts bought from eBay, and is several thousand air traffic controllers short. In September, the GAO warned that the push to finish modernization by 2028 risks prioritizing speed over cost and operational continuity.

TECH FOR GOOD

Image source: Vital Lyfe

The Rundown: A startup founded by former SpaceX engineers is shrinking desalination from billion-dollar coastal plants to a portable $749 box. Its unit turns seawater and contaminated freshwater into drinking water, Fast Company reports.

The details:

  • Vital Lyfe’s device uses a membrane to strip out salt and contaminants from water; it produces 22.7 liters/hr from seawater and 45.5 liters/hr from freshwater.

  • The unit weighs about 25 lb. and needs no through-hull fitting. Conventional marine watermakers cost thousands and usually need a professional install.

  • Vital Lyfe says filters swap out in under 30 seconds, which they say takes on the trickiest part of running a small desalination system.

  • The first buyers it’s after are sailors, campers, off-grid users, and disaster-prep shoppers, and it’s also looking at humanitarian deployments.

Why it matters: Vital Lyfe raised $24M in seed and debt financing last Dec. Its CEO points to Palau, where diesel-powered desalination units built into shipping containers now sit abandoned because they were too hard to maintain, but the unit’s membrane life and field performance still haven’t been independently verified.

QUICK HITS

The DOJ sued Lyft for $53M, alleging the company and its drivers routinely refuse riders with service dogs and stowable wheelchairs.

Fox completed its $22B acquisition of Roku, gaining access to over 100M households and boosting its position in streaming, connected TV, and digital advertising.

SpaceX is asking Starbase for a tax break on a $24B gas plant and data center, just as voters backed limits on data-center development in 40 of 41 local ballot measures.

France blamed Iranian-linked hackers for a simple cyberattack that hit supermarket refrigerators, warning that AI could make future attacks far more dangerous.

SpaceX said it’s evolving into a space-infrastructure company, using AI and Starship to build massive networks in Earth orbit and eventually on the Moon and Mars.

California voters rejected a proposed one-time 5% wealth tax on billionaires, by 53% to 47% after a record-spending opposition campaign backed by wealthy donors.

Comcast is beginning a new round of layoffs, with hundreds of workers in Pennsylvania set to lose their jobs as the cable giant cuts costs.

Tesla will officially end Cybertruck production in 2027, refund many deposits, and shift factory resources toward making more Cybercab robotaxis.

Hackers behind Binance’s record crypto theft reportedly created and traded memecoins to help launder stolen funds and make the money harder to trace.

Fervo Energy said it now has nearly $12B in contracted revenue, driven by surging demand for geothermal power from data centers including a 396 MW plant for Google.

Venmo is rolling out a receipt-scanning feature that automatically helps users split bills and request the correct amounts from each person.

That's it for today's tech rundown!

We'd love to hear your feedback on today's newsletter so we can continue to improve The Rundown experience for you.

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

See you soon,

Rowan, Zach, Shubham, Jennifer, and Nate — The Rundown’s editorial team

Reply

or to participate.