On 12 September a short video clip went viral. It depicts the American businessman, founder, president and CEO of tech company Nvidia Jensen Huang doing the famous “noodle dance” at a Haidilao hotpot restaurant in Cupertino, California. In the meantime, the share prices of the Santa Clara-based GPU maker continue to rally, after dropping since late August.
In the video, Huang is pictured following the lead of a member of staff to stretch the lamian noodle into shape with performative movements to the rhythm of the music, which sounds like a remix of Murong Xiaoxiao’s (慕容晓晓) “Love Trade” (爱情买卖, also called “Love Bargain”), a viral hit from back in 2009. Although Huang is a bit clumsy and the noodle in his hand is not really stretched in the video, the CEO is clearly having a lot of fun, as are the staff and most diners. It was later reported he was just having dinner with friends and there weren’t any bodyguards. The Haidilao Cupertino branch is only 11 minutes’ drive away from Nvidia’s headquarters in Santa Clara.
The day before, Huang reassured investors at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia and Technology Conference that there is still a very high demand for AI technology. The share price of Nvidia subsequently increased 8% on the same day as Huang’s speech.
On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the topic “Netizen ran into Jensen Huang stretching noodles at Haidilao in America” (#网友偶遇黄仁勋在美国海底捞甩面#) reached number 14 on the Hot Search list with 22.68 million views. Some see the latest impromptu dance as Huang’s celebration of the stock rebound that day, while others believe it’s his inherent “songchigan” or chill mentality. Huang’s “noodle dance” performance came 8 months after he performed a yangge-inspired dance on his first post-pandemic China trip, draped in “Dongbei dahua” pattern. In any case, most believe the move continues to build Huang and his common touch image.
