Jensen Huang mentions Apple's Srouji as successor... CFO likely to take over as interim head

In addition to internal executives, external personnel are also expected to be included in the next group of candidates.

The board meeting will likely take several hours... If majority votes, Jensen Hwang can be dismissed without cause.

According to the prediction market, the probability of remaining in office is only 12%... Technology industry advocates ‘saving Jensen Huang’

(San Francisco = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kwon Young-jeon = Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Colette Kress has been shown to be a strong candidate to replace Jensen Huang as Nvidia's interim CEO.

The full list of candidates for the next CEO to officially lead the company has not yet been revealed, but it is said to include Chief Hardware Officer (CHO) Johnny Srouji, who led Apple's own chip development.

U.S. online media Semapho reported on the 11th (local time), citing multiple sources, that some members of Nvidia's board of directors support the idea of ​​appointing CFO Kress as interim head if CEO Hwang is fired.

CFO Kress is the most widely known of Nvidia's executives, excluding CEO Hwang, and is well-versed in the company's situation as he has been with the company for 13 years.

He has a history of working in the finance departments of Cisco and Microsoft (MS), so he has a good understanding of the technology field.

However, given that he does not have the engineering background to take on the leadership of a semiconductor company, it is interpreted that he is only being mentioned as an interim CEO rather than an official successor.

Armina Rosenberg, co-founder of Minotaur Capital, who is also an Nvidia shareholder, said, "The market is beginning to reflect the absence of Nvidia's founder as a 'possible outcome' rather than a tail risk," adding, "Losing Jensen would be a really big blow."

Rosenberg said it was a "natural choice" for some of the board to name CFO Kress as interim CEO, and emphasized, "But the more important question is who will lead the company's long-term roadmap."

The candidates for the next head of company who will officially succeed CEO Hwang are still shrouded in mystery. However, as the board of directors mobilized an external headhunting company to find a successor, it seems likely that the company will be recruited not only from within but also from outside.

One source said that Srouji CHO, the protagonist of the 'Apple Silicon' myth, is being mentioned as one of the candidates.

Srouji CHO is the person who led Apple's self-designed chip development from the beginning, and has been in charge of the hardware division since John Turners became CEO following Tim Cook.

Users of Polymarket, a prediction market, predict that Vice President Ian Buck, who worked at Nvidia for 22 years and led the development of the 'CUDA' platform and is currently in charge of the data center and computing division, will be the successor with the highest probability of 33%.

Next, CFO Kress (30%) and CEO Renee Haas (5%), who was from NVIDIA, were mentioned. The percentage of people who thought CEO Hwang would remain in office was 12%.

The technology industry continued to argue that CEO Hwang should be saved.

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, defended Jensen Huang on

Gavin Baker, founder of Art Ladies Management, said he was receiving repeated calls telling the board to wait for the results of the investigation before firing CEO Hwang, and urged people to "don't call me, but contact people who can influence that decision."

Bloomberg observed that today's emergency board meeting, which was held virtually, will take more than several hours to make a final decision.

Nvidia's Articles of Incorporation stipulate that the CEO can be dismissed with or without cause if there is the approval of a majority of the board of directors, so if a significant number of board members agree, the decision to dismiss may not take long.

However, in addition to deciding whether to retain or dismiss the CEO, the board of directors must review the results of the investigation, receive legal advice, and discuss future plans, including the selection of a successor.

Therefore, the absence of a public announcement does not mean that a decision has not been made, Bloomberg added.

Currently, NVIDIA's board of directors consists of 11 members, and all 10 members, excluding CEO Hwang himself, are independent directors.

NVIDIA's stock price rose 2.87% in regular trading on this day thanks to low-price purchases, but as news broke that CEO Hwang may be dismissed after the market closed, it plunged more than 8.6% in after-hours trading, reaching $158.78 as of 8 PM Eastern time.