Jensen Huang's children and son-in-law's position will likely be narrowed... ‘Family succession’ expected to come to naught

San Francisco = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kwon Young-jeon = With former CEO Jensen Hwang resigning from NVIDIA amid a scandal, the position of his family members, including his children and sons-in-law, who hold key positions within the company, is expected to be diminished.

Some speculated that NVIDIA, which did not have an official succession structure, was seeking a long-term family succession, but this possibility has virtually disappeared.

According to the artificial intelligence (AI) industry on the 12th (local time), former CEO Hwang's daughter Madison Hwang is serving as senior director of product marketing for Nvidia's physical AI division.

After pursuing his career as a chef and earning a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from London Business School (LBS), he joined Nvidia as an intern in 2020 and was promoted very quickly.

Madison's son-in-law, Nico Caprez, an LBS alumnus who married last September, was selected as VP of global AI infrastructure growth, skipping the position of senior director in January of this year, two years after joining the company.

It is known that he, who served as the national ski Swiss representative in his youth, worked as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and then joined Nvidia, becoming former CEO Hwang's closest advisor.

He is in charge of overseeing data center partnerships such as the Neo Cloud Group, and in particular, he played a role in making NVIDIA like a bank in the AI ​​industry by promoting a credit guarantee and loan program that allows it to raise funds using graphics processing units (GPUs) as collateral, according to The Information, a media outlet specializing in information technology (IT).

Former CEO Hwang's son, Spencer Hwang, also joined Nvidia and is working as director of robotics product management.

While NVIDIA has maintained an extremely horizontal decision-making structure with no hierarchy except for the head, with about 60 executives reporting directly to the CEO, complaints have repeatedly emerged that an unusual power dynamic has emerged within the company as family members who communicate directly with former CEO Hwang have been appointed to key positions.

Not only did their speaking power increase at meetings, but customers and suppliers also tried to maintain relationships with former CEO Hwang's family, ignoring other Nvidia employees.

Some employees said, "It seems like he is preparing Madison and Nico for the next step," leading to speculation that former CEO Hwang had in fact chosen them as his successors.

Former CEO Hwang denied such speculation in an interview with Bloomberg before this incident came to light, saying, "I don't want my daughter to take that position (CEO)."

However, he did not completely rule out the possibility, saying, "If that is Spencer or Madison's ambition, they should take that position themselves."

Voices pointing out this kind of nepotism management system, which is very unfamiliar in Silicon Valley technology companies, have been raised consistently both internally and externally.

In fact, at a company-wide town hall meeting last year, questions about nepotistic management were also raised, US economic broadcaster CNBC reported.

At the time, former CEO Hwang responded, “It is good if the recruitment of children is done appropriately and is based on qualifications and abilities.”

He continued by saying that he was proud of his children and that "the children of executives working at Nvidia are better than their parents," which actually gave them more strength.

However, this situation turned 180 degrees when former CEO Hwang stepped down due to an affair with a woman accused of being a Chinese spy and extramarital affairs with female executives and employees.

Their position became extremely vulnerable as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Colette Kress stepped in as interim CEO and the board of directors mobilized an external company to search for a successor.

There is speculation that the dissatisfaction that has been accumulating within the company due to the so-called 'Dad Chance' may be expressed with the fall of former CEO Hwang.

Accordingly, if the remaining children cannot prove their achievements through actual abilities, it is expected that it will be difficult for them to maintain their influence at NVIDIA without former CEO Hwang.