The introduction of a medieval public health system in Trondheim exposed the population to roundworm

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

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Nidaros (now Trondheim) was a bustling city in the Middle Ages, characterized by trade, migration, and powerful institutions such as Nidaros Cathedral and the Archbishop’s Palace. This drawing depicts the urban landscape around the city’s main thoroughfare, Kaupmannastretet (known today as Krambugata). It is a reconstruction of how the area appeared around 1250. 

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Credit: Illustration: Kari Støren Binns, NTNU University Museum.

Ancient skeletons can tell us a great deal about how people lived, what they ate, what diseases they suffered from, and what caused their deaths. They also provide insight into social conditions and how society was organized.

Inside the Trondheim Public Library, you can see parts of a medieval cemetery unearthed by archaeologists. This was the burial ground for people who belonged to a stone church that once stood beneath the library building.

Another medieval cemetery lies just across the street, situated beneath the premises of the current bank building, SpareBank 1.

One cemetery was centrally located in the oldest part of the city, while the other was situated on the outskirts of the urban core. Archaeological excavations and findings at these two sites have revealed significant differences between the individuals buried there.

Differing diets

Bone analysis indicates that child mortality was significantly higher, and general health poorer, among those buried in the cemetery on the city’s periphery at the time – an area inhabited primarily by craft workers.

Their diet was less varied than that of Kaupmannastretet (known today as Krambugata) residents, who belonged to the church beneath the public library. The latter group represented the city’s social elite; they were engaged in trade and resided in large townhouses. Their diet was more diverse, including seafood, for example. Social inequality affected health and mortality –then and today.

MedHeal600 (Medieval Urban Health: From private to public responsibility) is a research project led by the University Museum at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

The researchers have investigated public health and living conditions in Trondheim from the year 1000 to 1600, including how public authorities facilitated access to healthcare.

The origins of a public health system

Analyses of the skeletons reveal that well over half of the city’s inhabitants experienced physiological stress during childhood and adolescence, caused by an insufficient or overly monotonous diet. Many people also died from infectious diseases such as leprosy, typhoid fever, and tuberculosis.

“Society was familiar with these diseases, and public authorities implemented measures to limit their spread. In the Middle Ages, responsibility for health, hygiene, and waste management shifted from being a private concern to increasingly becoming a public urban responsibility," says Axel Christophersen.

Christophersen is a professor emeritus of historical archaeology at the NTNU University Museum and has headed the Medieval Urban Health research project.

"The city initiated measures to improve hygiene, ensure cleaner streets, and manage waste," says Christophersen.

Here we see the beginnings of a public health system.

Responsibility for the community and the King’s inspectors

Erik Opsahl is a professor of medieval history and head of the Centre for Medieval Studies at NTNU. He points out the importance of the fundamental principle in Magnus the Lawmender’s Landslov (Norwegian Code of the Realm) of 1274 – and the Bylov (Town Law) two years later. The local community bore, to a large extent, what we might call the operational responsibility for the common good.

In many respects, the King’s officials acted as overseers to ensure that tasks were carried out.

Erik Opsahl, Axel Christophersen, and James Barrett edited the recently published book Health in Medieval Urban Trondheim: From Individual to Communal Responsibility AD 1000–1600.

The changes in the new waste management system did not follow a linear progression from simple to advanced, or from private to public. Rather, these were dynamic processes driven by shifts in various practices.

“Moreover, the modern distinction between the private and public sphere is difficult to apply to medieval society,” says Opsahl.

Good intentions, mixed outcomes

In her PhD dissertation as part of this research project, Elisabeth Forrestad Swensen explored the development of a functional new water and waste management system during the Middle Ages and the early modern period.

Swensen examined how Trondheim managed waste, sewage, and drinking water, and how these factors influenced public health and the spread of disease. Archaeological findings indicate that the inhabitants of Nidaros (as Trondheim was then known) actively addressed the challenges related to water and waste.

“Measures were taken with clear, positive intentions; however, not all of them proved equally effective in practice. Although waste was often handled with care, certain changes may nonetheless have led to an increase in infectious diseases and parasites,” Swensen says.

Latrine waste was not mixed with other types of waste. The two waste types were disposed of in separate locations. The distinction between general waste pits and latrine pits indicates that human waste was managed according to its own specific protocols.

A vicious cycle of roundworms

During the High Middle Ages (1130–1350), Europe – including Norway – experienced significant population growth.

Everything increased: more people, more houses, more waste... and more foul odours. During this period, the theory of miasmas gained traction. This concept was linked to unpleasant smells, which were believed to be the actual cause of disease.

This belief is likely why the authorities in Trondheim decreed that fetid latrine waste should be transported to pits outside the city centre – a measure that sounds both sensible and smart.

However, "an analysis of the contents of these latrines reveals that nearly the entire population was infected with roundworms. This occurred because the latrine waste was incorporated into manure once it began being transported out of the city centre. Roundworms thrive especially well in manure," says Swensen.

"This manure was spread across the city’s agricultural land where food was grown. allowing the roundworm parasite to enter the food supply, and consequently, the people living in the city," she explains.

The result was a kind of perpetual cycle between humans and roundworms.

Wood chips dampened unpleasant odours

Latrine waste was transported out of the city, whereas most other waste pits remained within the city limits. However, these were situated on separate plots of land, suggesting that the inhabitants understood the health benefits of keeping organic waste at a distance.

Sawdust or wood chips were mixed in and made up a significant portion of this waste, which helped to dampen the smell of decaying refuse.

The volume of wood chips – a byproduct of house construction – dropped significantly toward the end of the 13th century. This could be linked to a massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia in 1257, which sent ash clouds across vast distances. Traces of this ash can still be found in the northern and southern polar regions.

Temperatures fell sharply for several years, tree growth slowed, and these climatic changes dampened societal activity.

Wood chip shortage led to new waste-disposal practices

“Migration into Trondheim appears to have stagnated during the second half of the 13th century as well. Archaeological investigations have shown that house construction all but ceased from around 1300. This could be related in part to a stagnation in population growth. Construction over the course of several centuries had also exhausted the timber supply surrounding Trondheim. This led to a reduction in construction waste – notably wood shavings and wood chips," says Axel Christophersen.

The shortage of wood chips contributed to a significant worsening of the stench emanating from the waste pits within the city.

Reduced risk of disease

Excavations reveal that the practice of discarding organic waste into the pits along city streets where people lived came to an end during this period. Organic waste was now transported out of the city instead. The loss of wood chips and the intensified stench from the waste pits are likely reasons for the shift in managing waste.

This change in waste management helped lower the risk of infectious diseases.

Then the Black Death swept in

The Black Death reached Europe from Asia via the Silk Road and wreaked havoc starting in the mid-14th century. The deadly plague arrived in Norway in 1349, claiming the lives of an estimated one-third of the population, though the exact death toll remains unknown.

“The late Middle Ages has a particularly poor reputation, and the Black Death has been blamed for a long period of decline in Norway. This ultimately led to Norway becoming politically subordinate to Denmark in 1537 – an event often referred to as Norway’s ‘loss of independence,’” says Opsahl.

“However, a single plague epidemic cannot account for such a sharp population decline, which persisted for several centuries. This decline was the result of repeated outbreaks of the plague. Around 1340, Norway’s population was approximately 500,000; by the early 16th century, the country had only about 200,000 inhabitants,” Opsahl says.

Population Trends

We cannot know exactly how the population evolved between these two points in time. Was the decline a steady, continuous drop in population? Or did it follow a pattern of recovery and growth following one plague outbreak, only to be reduced again by the next?

“The latter scenario is the most probable, given the broader European trend, says Opsahl. “It also aligns with evidence that we observed in construction activity. So, it’s quite possible that the population of Trondheim experienced periods of relative growth.”

The book Health in Medieval Urban Trondheim: From Individual to Communal Responsibility AD 1000–1600, Scandinavian University Press / Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskabs Skrifter (Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters' Publications), published 16 August 2026.

Elisabeth Forrestad Swensen, Chapter 6: "Water and Waste in Medieval Urban Trondheim: How Mind and Matter Affected Health."

You can learn more about the research project in this podcast: Ny funn om livet i middelalderen (link in Norwegian).

Access the complete podcast series "Trondheim i middelalderen" (link in Norwegian), featuring Professor Erik Opsahl and Director of Culture Ola By Rise.

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DOI

10.18261/9788294167104-26-00

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Introducing Health in Medieval Urban Trondheim: From Individual to Communal Responsibility AD 1000–1600

Nidaros around the year 1300. The photograph shows a model from the Medieval Museum in Trondheim. 

Credit

Photo: Axel Christophersen

A reconstruction of Kaupmannastretet in the medieval exhibition at the NTNU University Museum in Trondheim. The people who lived here had enough food to eat. However, 60–70 per cent of the city's population had such poor diets that their immune systems were weakened.

Credit

Photo: NTNU University Museum

Christophersen (left) speaking at the the book launch at Trondheim’s House of Literature (Litteraturhuset). From left: Axel Christophersen, Erik Opsahl, Elisabeth Forrestad Swensen, and podcast host Ola By Rise, Director of Culture for the Municipality of Trondheim. 

Credit

Photo: Idun Haugan, NTNU

 

Op-Ed: Europe is stockpiling critical minerals. Wonderful. Can anyone actually use them?

Nicholas Vafeas | November 13, 2026 | 

Image credit: Pascal Ingelrest via Pexels.

There is something tremendously comforting about a warehouse. You can photograph it, measure it, put a ribbon across the entrance and invite a commissioner to cut it. If you fill it with enough material, you can even announce that Europe has become more secure. A functioning industrial supply chain is rather less obliging. It insists on factories, skills, equipment, investment and, most inconveniently, the ability to turn one thing into another.

Brussels is now moving to build strategic reserves of critical raw materials through RESourceEU. Given Europe’s exposure to export restrictions, geopolitical disruption and concentrated supply chains, this is a sensible development. Frankly, it’s overdue.

But before we start congratulating ourselves on the size of the pile, might I ask an awkward question? What, exactly, are we buying? Because securing a mineral and securing the ability to use that mineral are two entirely different achievements. Confusing them could leave Europe with a magnificent collection of strategically important rocks and precisely the same industrial dependencies it had before.

A warehouse full of the wrong stuff

Consider tungsten. It matters enormously to cutting tools, industrial machinery and defence. Excellent! Let’s stockpile tungsten, then.

Except tungsten concentrate is not ammonium paratungstate. Neither is tungsten powder, nor tungsten carbide. They occupy different stages of a processing chain and are not interchangeable simply because the word tungsten appears on the paperwork. Suppose Europe buys a splendid reserve of concentrate. The tonnage looks impressive. The procurement department has excelled itself. There may even be a commemorative photograph.

Then a crisis interrupts access to the overseas facilities needed to convert the concentrate into industrial products. European manufacturers ask for the material they can actually use, and we proudly direct them to a building full of something they cannot. That’s more storage arrangement than it is resilience. Rare earths are no different. Mixed concentrate, separated oxides, metals and magnet alloys are not four varieties of the same product. They serve different functions and require different processing capabilities. A magnet manufacturer cannot solve a shortage of suitable inputs by being handed a bag of mixed concentrate and encouraged to show initiative.

Of course, buying more advanced products presents a different problem. They may be immediately useful, but if they come from the same concentrated processing networks, the dependency has not disappeared. Europe has simply bought itself time. Whilst that time certainly has value, it would be a mistake to confuse it with a cure.

The trouble with buying things is that it’s easier than building them

The Critical Raw Materials Act sets a 2030 benchmark for EU processing capacity equivalent to at least 40% of annual strategic raw material consumption. RESourceEU’s December 2025 action plan brings stockpiling and joint purchasing together with investment support and supply diversification. On paper, splendid, but in practice, these ambitions could pull in rather different directions.

Imagine two proposals land on a procurement official’s desk. One offers refined material from an established overseas producer, available relatively soon. The other would help establish processing capacity in Europe, involving permits, financing, construction, commissioning and the usual succession of expensive surprises.

Now tell that official their performance will be judged by price, delivery speed and tonnes acquired. Which proposal do you suppose will win? I honestly wouldn’t blame the official. We’ve designed a system in which buying today’s material may look like success, while building tomorrow’s resilience looks suspiciously like a delay. This is why strategic stockpiling cannot be treated as a shopping list with a flag attached. Procurement is industrial policy, whether Brussels chooses to recognise it or not.

To be fair, overseas purchasing need not undermine domestic investment. Properly structured reserves could create reliable demand, underpin long-term offtake and help finance European processing facilities. But that requires design, not wishful thinking. Europe’s buying power should strengthen its building power, otherwise, we’ll have prepared beautifully for the next shortage and done remarkably little about the one after it.

Partners, not convenient places from which to extract things

There is also the small matter of the rest of the world. The EU has strategic raw materials partnership with countries including Zambia, Namibia and Chile. These are meant to support more secure supply chains and sustainable development. A very fine objective, provided we remember that the partner countries have objectives too.

Zambia wants more beneficiation and domestic value addition. Namibia has restricted exports of certain unprocessed minerals to encourage local processing. Neither country is especially eager to remain a picturesque source of raw material while someone else captures the industrial value. And why should they be?

Europe sometimes talks as though supply-chain security requires every useful processing facility to stand within the EU’s borders. It doesn’t. Security requires reliable, diversified capabilities across the chain, supported by stable relationships and realistic logistics.

Suppose European investment helps develop processing in Zambia, another refining route in a different partner country, and downstream manufacturing within Europe. That could provide substantially more resilience than buying raw materials from five countries and sending all five shipments to the same processing hub elsewhere.

We are very fond of diversifying where minerals are dug up. We ought to show a similar enthusiasm for diversifying where they become useful. And if Europe’s procurement commitments help partners build industries of their own, that is not an act of charity. It is a rather intelligent form of self-interest.

An old battery is not a new battery

Then we have recycling, another subject on which policy announcements can move considerably faster than physical materials. Europe already has critical metals in industrial scrap, electronic equipment, batteries and other end-of-life products. This is a resource worth recovering. But collecting an object containing a metal is not the same as recovering that metal to a specification with which somebody can manufacture.

A warehouse full of spent batteries is not a reserve of battery-grade lithium, nickel and cobalt. It is a warehouse full of spent batteries. It might seem semantic, but chemistry is notoriously indifferent to political enthusiasm.

Nor can these materials necessarily move wherever we please. Depending on their classification and composition, secondary streams may be subject to waste shipment controls, notifications and restrictions. Those rules serve legitimate environmental purposes, and are not inherently obstacles that should simply be removed. The answer is to understand how collection, legal movement, recovery, refining and industrial use fit together before counting a secondary material as strategically available.

So you see, ore and waste are governed through different policy pathways, yet both ultimately depend on the same practical question: can we get from the material we have to the product industry needs, when it needs it?

Weaponise the wallet

Europe has something more powerful than a warehouse, it has enormous collective purchasing power. Perhaps it ought to use it for something more imaginative than winning an international trolley dash.

Rather than judging contracts only by price, volume and delivery, the EU could ask what each purchase does for long-term resilience. Does it diversify processing? Support new refining capacity? Underpin recycling infrastructure? Create a commercially credible alternative when an existing route fails?

For some materials, procurement could be linked to European processing projects. For others, long-term offtake agreements, joint ventures or purchasing commitments could support facilities in partner countries. Where legally and commercially suitable, targeted value-addition conditions might make sense.

Not a splendid, one-size-fits-all bureaucratic rule demanding that every mineral be treated identically. A tungsten chain may need conversion capacity. A rare-earth chain may need separation or magnet manufacturing. Different bottlenecks require different solutions. This should not be controversial, although one never quite knows. Every major purchasing decision should therefore answer two questions:

what material are we securing now, and what capability are we helping create for later? If the answer to the second is ‘nothing whatsoever’, we should at least have the decency to admit we’re buying insurance, not independence.

A stockpile is not a strategy

To judge a strategic reserve by tonnage alone is rather like judging a hospital by the number of beds it owns, without checking whether it has doctors, electricity or a functioning operating theatre. An impressive inventory, certainly. A less impressive outcome when somebody actually needs help.

Buying time is perfectly sensible, if we use it to build something. The Critical Raw Materials Act and RESourceEU give Europe a framework for doing so. The challenge is making procurement, processing investment, recycling and international partnerships work as one system rather than four separate administrative triumphs. Because the nightmare is not that Europe’s strategic stockpile will be empty, but that it will be gloriously, expensively and impeccably full, whilst the factories sit in silence.

Dr. Nicholas Vafeas is the Founder and Director of BluMelt Mineral Consulting Limited, an independent consultancy specialising in critical mineral intelligence, resource assurance and investment de-risking.

 Analysis

The Nvidia affair: Are markets about to fall out of love with AI?

Jensen Huang’s departure from Nvidia exposes the vulnerabilities behind the AI boom. As equities reel in response to his resignation following extramarital affairs, alleged Chinese espionage and a summons to testify before US lawmakers, questions mount over who is really in charge of tech and whether the immense capital riding on it can survive the turmoil.


Issued on: 14/11/2026 
FRANCE24
By: Ella ARWYN JONES

Nvidia boss Jensen Huang at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 6, 2025. © Patrick T. Fallon, AFP


Nvidia is a name that has been projected front and centre in the minds of tech enthusiasts and returns-chasing investors alike since its surge to dominate the tech sector in the S&P 500, where it typically accounts for 6 to 7 percent of the value of the index that tracks the performance of 500 leading large-cap, publicly traded companies. But in the space of just a couple of weeks, the $4.2 trillion semiconductor group – whose chips underpin much of the world’s artificial intelligence build-out – has been plunged into the most serious governance crisis since its 1993 inception, sparking geopolitical friction and renewed nervousness amid an ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

Caught in the crossfire is founder and now defunct CEO Jensen Huang, who for more than three decades was the driving force behind Nvidia (somewhat ironically, attributed to coming from the Latin for "envy" or "greed"), transforming it from a computer graphics company into the world's most valuable semiconductor business supplying the components that power smart tech. Following reports of love affairs – the most recent being an in-house revelation with a direct report and company vice president of healthcare, Kimberly Powell – and suspicions of espionage, Jensen Huang’s abrupt departure as chief executive is sending shockwaves through an industry built in part on his leadership.

The bamboo curtain

At the centre of the controversy is Megaspeed, a Singapore-based computing company that reportedly purchased billions of dollars' worth of Nvidia hardware. On November 8, the former CEO confessed to an affair with the firm’s executive, Alice Huang, who joined the company in 2023 and turned the once-gaming business into a tech-driven data centre enterprise that helps China-based customers access chips. Reported to have established industry legitimacy with both Nvidia by frequently touting her commercial relationship with Chinese e-commerce and tech giant Alibaba – for whom she is speculated to have purchased Nvidia chips on behalf of – intelligence officials believe she was working for China’s spy agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS). US authorities are investigating whether Megaspeed helped advanced processors reach Chinese customers in breach of American export restrictions, and late on Thursday, ex-CEO Jensen Huang was summoned to testify before US lawmakers.

The allegations involving Alice Huang add a geopolitical, national security dimension to an already sensitive commercial relationship. Washington has spent years restricting China's access to the most powerful AI chips, arguing the technology could strengthen its military, intelligence and surveillance capabilities. Meanwhile, for Beijing, technological prowess remains central to its ambition to compete with the United States in artificial intelligence.

“Megaspeed came under scrutiny long before anyone linked it to this love story,” said Rayna Stamboliyska, CEO at RS Strategy, a company specialising in digital diplomacy, and a practitioner-in-residence at the Centre Internet and Society (CIS) at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).

“US authorities have reportedly been investigating Megaspeed since 2024,” she said, alluding to reports that the firm imported billions of dollars’ worth of Nvidia chips into Malaysia on behalf of Chinese clients.

Current export controls restrict the circulation of sophisticated American semiconductor and advanced technologies in certain jurisdictions such as China and limit the power of those accessed via special licence. Introduced under the Biden administration in 2018, the limitations initially sent shockwaves through the semiconductor industry, as chip manufacturers such as Nvidia and AMD had to immediately create less powerful “China-versions” of their top AI chips to stay compliant.

However, it’s possible to circumvent access restrictions to the US’s top tech if no physical item is transferred. This would be stopped if US lawmakers pass the US Chip Security Act, which seeks to enforce “location verification”.

The bill passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee by unanimous vote in March 2026, but it still needs to navigate several legislative hurdles in the US Congress before being enacted. But a Democratic majority could support a next round of security restrictions.

“There have been rumours that Nvidia is the biggest opponent of both the Chip Security Act and the AI Overwatch Act,” Stamboliyska noted. “The CEO stepping down means that Nvidia loses let's say it's most effective lobbyists.”

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly fought attempts to regulate AI and, in October, awarded Jensen Huang the National Medal of Science during the "Science: A New Golden Age" summit hosted at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC. Stamboliyska pointed to how concerns around AI – as well as proposals for more data centres – played a key role in the recent US midterm elections.

Screenshot of post by Donald J. Trump on Truth Social. © Donald J. Trump via Truth Social

Indeed, these proved pivotal in a number of specific House and Senate races – including in Texas, where Democrat governor-elect Gina Hinojosa campaigned against the influence of the likes of Musk, who spent roughly $225 million supporting Republicans in the state, noted the Financial Times.

No confirmaijing or that Jensen Huang knowingly assisted an intelligence operation.

tion has yet been shared indicating that sensitive tech information was passed to Be

A company bigger than its CEO?

Jensen Huang is not an ordinary departing chief executive. Since co-founding Nvidia with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem in 1993, he presided over its transformation to become the dominant international supplier of advanced processors used to train and operate AI systems. And his influence extended well beyond the company's products: Nvidia is an essential partner to Microsoft, Amazon, Google, OpenAI and other businesses in the race to develop increasingly powerful AI models, while its graphics processing units (GPUs) – or “chips”– software and wider computing infrastructure have become the foundation of an economic ecosystem involving cloud providers, data-centre operators, start-ups and governments.

“AI is definitely losing a leader,” said Leïla Mörch, tech investor and founder of tech advisory firm Shael.

While company execs search for Jensen Huang’s permanent successor, Nvidia has appointed longtime Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim CEO. Kress inherits a role in a firm with formidable resources and a strong market position, but also one that faces unprecedented scrutiny. The challenge will be to demonstrate that Nvidia's success rests on institutional strength rather than dependence on one individual.

“I find it interesting that such a private affair is now unveiling the big geopolitical, capitalist and economic questions behind the AI industry,” noted Mörch. “It shows that the market is so much more than just business and numbers.”

US President Donald Trump presents the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to US' CEO Of nvidia Jensen Huang during the "Golden Age of American Innovation Summit" in October. © Kent Nishimura, AFP

Anthropic anticipation

Nvidia has become a bellwether for the international AI economy. Its performance influences investor expectations for the businesses buying its processors, building data centres and developing AI applications. The extraordinary sums being invested in the sector are based on the relatively simple assumption that demand for tech will continue to grow.

Across the industry, Jensen Huang was considered a voice of reason, often stabilising shareholder reactions amid market-wide sell-offs and allaying wider emerging tech fears. “He was quite vocal in his criticism of (now OpenAI CEO) Sam Altman when he claimed back in 2019 essentially ‘we’re all gonna die’ as a result of AI,” said Stamboliyska. OpenAI initially withheld GPT-2 on the grounds that it was too dangerous to release.

“He was very business and industry oriented. He would acknowledge that yes, investors are spending a lot of money on this emerging industry – billions of dollars – but actually, we are still very far from the trillions of dollars that are actually needed,” said Mörch, of his ability to offer a grounding presence amid a fast-changing industry. “He made people feel like it’s going to be ok.”

Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta continue to commit hundreds of billions of dollars to AI infrastructure, as start-ups raise significant capital to compete amid the development of increasingly sophisticated models.

But there has been a recent downward – albeit possibly temporary – trend in AI stocks, prompted by US political shifts, nervousness around potential interest-rate hikes, and ongoing US-China trade tensions. Nvidia shares have lost 13 percent of their value since Monday and are down more than 26 percent over the past month. The firm is scheduled to present its third-quarter results next week on November 17.

How close was Nvidia ex-CEO, to Trump?

Cover image: © France 24

04:09

The timing of the Nvidia reverberations is particularly pertinent for behemoths such as Anthropic – the company behind Claude AI – and other developers seeking to attract investment. Their valuations depend on expectations of sustained growth, continued access to computing resources and businesses' willingness to keep spending on AI.

Backed by seven cornerstone investors whose rolodex boasts names including Alphabet, Nvidia and Microsoft – Anthropic is scheduled to price its initial public offering via New York’s Nasdaq on November 18 and hopes to raise shares amounting to around $64.4 billion. In doing so, the company would achieve a valuation of between $1.26 trillion and $1.41 trillion – a hefty sum, albeit down on the more than $2 trillion valuation it had hoped for months prior. Goldman Sachs is underwriting the transaction and projects the firm to achieve an annual revenue of roughly $685 billion by 2030. But if confidence continues to weaken, the consequences could spread throughout the investment chain, with Anthropic’s ambitions falling flat.

“If Anthropic’s IPO goes well, it would be a strong signal to the market that everything that's happening in terms of intelligence is ‘morality based’, but otherwise the business is still here.”

Photos of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during a previous visit are displayed at a preserved fruit shop in Taipei on November 13, 2026. Jensen Huang, chief executive of US-firm Nvidia, was born in Taiwan. © I-Hwa Cheng

Europe’s call for greater sovereignty

The crisis raises a familiar but increasingly urgent question: How can European markets avoid becoming dependent on just a handful of American tech companies for the infrastructure underpinning the digital future? Just last month, Nvidia invested in French healthtech firm – and household name – Doctolib.

European governments have repeatedly called for greater technological sovereignty, investment in domestic computing capacity and the development of home-grown AI champions. Yet Nvidia's dominance illustrates how difficult that ambition might be to achieve in terms of resources, investment, energy and expertise.

Mörch pointed to the UK government agency AI Security Institute, which she explained is one of – if not the only – government entities to invest actively in auditing the technology and language learning models before they are made accessible to the public, which she said builds an inherent sense of accountability.

“We do have some kind of solution and watching what these people are doing should be a source of inspiration and action for the rest of the world.”

“The industry is now realising and unveiling some weaknesses … perhaps over personalisation and a lack of decentralisation of power,” she said, adding that current developments are prompting big players to reconsider their succession plans and take appropriate steps to ensure board independence.

The Nvidia affair could strengthen European arguments for diversifying supply chains and applying a tougher regulatory stance on strategic tech bros. It may also encourage governments to look more closely at ownership and control of data centres, the provenance of computing hardware and the risks associated with international technology partnerships.

But leaning into Altman’s fears that AI may eventually signal the end of humanity, Mörch remains philosophical on who might fill the Jensen Huang gap at Nvidia’s helm. “You know we say in French, ‘les cimetières sont pleins de gens irremplacables’… cemeteries are full of irreplaceable people. You might be irreplaceable. It doesn't mean that you will never be replaced.”

Nvidia's disgraced ex-CEO Jensen Huang to testify before US Congress

Jensen Huang, who resigned as Nvidia's chief executive on Thursday following allegations he had an affair with a Chinese spy, has been summoned to testify before US lawmakers, Republican Senator Tim Scott said. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was also called to answer questions from lawmakers concerning US national security and "the protection of sensitive US technology".


Modified: 13/11/2026 
FRANCE 24

Co-founder, president and CEO of US technology company Nvidia Jensen Huang was ousted after allegations he had an affair with a Chinese spy. © John Macdougall, AFP

US lawmakers have called Jensen Huang, an architect of the artificial intelligence boom, to face their questions in December after the Nvidia ex-CEO quit over extramarital affairs, including one with a suspected Chinese spy.

The scandal has wiped almost half a trillion dollars off Nvidia's market valuation, as it raises national security fears and leaves the AI industry in uncharted waters.

"Recent reports raise serious concerns about our national security and the protection of sensitive US technology," Republican Senator Tim Scott wrote Thursday on X.

Scott said he was requesting Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify in December before the Senate Banking Committee, which he chairs.

It joins a call for a closed-door interview with the leather-jacketed, 63-year-old Huang on December 1 by three House of Representatives committees, on threat of subpoena.

Huang, who has been married to his wife Lori for over 40 years, admitted Sunday to an affair, reportedly with Alice Huang, a former senior executive at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed. The two are not related.

US intelligence reportedly circulated a memo this spring alleging she was an asset of China's Ministry of State Security. Beijing has rejected the allegations.

On Wednesday, The New York Times reported a second affair, citing video of Huang being affectionate with Nvidia's vice president of health care, Kimberly Powell.

While Nvidia's board searches for a permanent successor to Huang, who spent 33 years at the helm of the firm he co-founded, chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO.

Nvidia hit gold when the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2022 sparked a global rush to develop AI, with its processors – once designed for video game graphics – becoming a crucial ingredient to train and run the technology.

Informal Trump adviser

Nvidia did not give a reason for Huang's departure, who also gave up his board seat.

Huang is Nvidia's largest individual shareholder, with a stake of about 3.6 percent, according to the company.

The Taiwanese-born businessman was a close informal adviser to President Donald Trump on AI, and had spent years lobbying against curbs on sales of advanced AI chips to China for national security reasons.

Dan Ives of investment bank Yorkville Ives called it "a dark day for Nvidia and the US tech industry".

But he said the board had done what it needed: "rip off the band-aid and take Nvidia into its next chapter without him".

Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive, has been outted as an alleged spy for China. File photo via AFP

The board named Harvey Jones, a former chief executive of chip design software firm Synopsys, as chair, and said it expected the company's operations and product roadmap "to continue without interruption".

Interim CEO Kress joined Nvidia in 2013 after nearly 25 years at companies including Cisco and Microsoft.

Trump, who had stood by Huang throughout the scandal, said former Apple boss Tim Cook should take over.

"A Legend replaces a Legend!" Trump said on his Truth Social network, adding that Cook had made Apple "one of the great companies of the world at a fairly short range".
'Going through hell'

Singapore said Thursday it had barred Alice Huang, a Chinese national, from re-entering the country in February for giving investigators inaccurate information about her role at Megaspeed, though she was not investigated for espionage.

Nvidia's board opened a probe on Sunday into reporting that Huang had been the target of a "foreign intelligence effort", while saying it retained confidence in him.

When asked Thursday if Jensen should have stepped down, Trump said it would depend.

"If the woman was a spy, yes. If the woman was not a spy, perhaps it would be different," Trump said in an interview.

But Trump said he was confident that Huang will "end up on his feet", adding: "I spoke to him yesterday. He's going through hell. What he feels most badly about is his wife and family."

At the heart of the spy allegations is the race between the United States and China for supremacy in an industry widely seen as the next industrial revolution.

© Taryn NG, AFP

Key US lawmakers, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, called Thursday for answers on what the Trump administration knew about Huang's ties to a suspected Chinese spy, days before Trump travels to China for a summit.

Reports allege the Commerce Department under Secretary Howard Lutnick may have failed to act on suspicions that Megaspeed was helping reroute restricted Nvidia technology to China.

Singapore's home ministry said it had repeatedly sought information from the US Justice Department and FBI on a US server supplier during its Megaspeed probe, but "received limited information or assistance".

On Thursday, Malaysia also said Friday it was investigating a subsidiary of Megaspeed International over the possible diversion of advanced AI chips to other countries.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Taiwan chip suppliers shrug off Nvidia CEO departure

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By IntelliNews - New Taipei Bureau November 13, 2026

Taiwan's semiconductor suppliers face little risk of serious disruption after Jensen Huang stepped down from Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), though his exit may speed up a shift in AI chip orders towards rival products, industry executives and investment advisers said, Focus Taiwan reported on November 13.

Huang, who co-founded the US chip designer, quit on November 12 as president, chief executive and board member. He left after reports emerged of extramarital relationships with two women. US intelligence officials suspect one of them, a businesswoman, of links to Chinese intelligence. Nvidia has named Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim CEO while the board looks for a permanent replacement.

Taishin Securities Investment Advisory said in a report that the resignation could hasten the spread of AI chip orders beyond Nvidia. According to the report, competitors AMD and Broadcom stand to gain, as do Amazon and Google. Both are building their own application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), which are chips tailored to particular tasks.

Senior chip industry executives who spoke to Taiwan's Central News Agency agreed that ASIC work could pick up pace. They did not expect it to upset the balance with graphics processing units (GPUs), the core of Nvidia's AI business. One executive in the substrate sector said Nvidia's GPUs would be difficult to displace because many AI developers depend on CUDA, the company's software platform built to run on its chips.

Taishin said close ties between chipmakers and their Taiwanese partners should shield local suppliers even if demand moves from GPUs to ASICs. Alex Huang, an analyst at Mega International Investment Services, also expected little impact. He noted that Taiwanese firms remain central to the AI supply chain as demand grows and buyers try to cut their dependence on China. Individual suppliers would keep adapting to changes in product demand and technology, he added.

An executive at a packaging and testing firm said the company might move part of its 2027 budget to manage short-term risk. Over the longer run, the executive saw good prospects for both GPUs and ASICs and said the firm would keep developing both in line with customer needs.

A second executive said Nvidia's orders from Taiwan would not change. Increasingly complex GPU technology and lengthy supplier qualification make it hard for the company to switch vendors, the executive explained.

Taishin said US export policy towards China remained a key issue for Taiwanese suppliers, including any revisions to rules on Nvidia's H200 shipments. Washington currently requires licences for H200 AI chips sold to approved Chinese buyers, and every application undergoes a security review.