SEATTLE — In Seattle, you don't have to work in technology to feel its influence. Amazon and Microsoft are major employers here, and their influence extends well beyond their offices. Layoffs make headlines, unsettle neighborhoods and leave families wondering what comes next. The industry's ups and downs are hard to ignore, even for those who have never worked in tech. Living here, I've often been struck by how much power a relatively small group of corporate executives holds over people's everyday lives. But the controversy surrounding Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang offers a reminder that their influence can extend well beyond the economy, sometimes into territory usually reserved for governments and intelligence agencies. Huang, whose company sits at the center of the global artificial intelligence (AI) boom, recently acknowledged having an extramarital affair. That alone would have been enough to generate headlines. What followed was considerably more unsettling. Media reports identified a Chinese business executive, who allegedly had a relationship with Huang, as someone suspected by U.S.