[ITmedia Business Online] NVIDIA founder's resignation raises questions about the limits of a "one-man intensive system" due to the absence of "number two"

On November 12, NVIDIA announced the resignation of co-founder Jensen Huang, who has served as CEO for 33 years.

This comes four days after the company's board launched an investigation into its relationship with a woman suspected of having ties to Chinese intelligence services.

On the same day, at the technology conference "Web Summit 2026" held in Lisbon, Portugal, there was a discussion on whether NVIDIA could survive without its founder. Can NVIDIA continue to grow without Huang? Think from two aspects: business and management structure.

Cress resigns after 4 days of investigation, becomes interim CEO

The board of directors accepted his resignation on November 11. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent replacement internally and externally. The chairman was Harvey C. Jones, former CEO of Synopsys, a major U.S. semiconductor design software company. This is the first time for NVIDIA to have a chairman on its board of directors.

The statement did not mention the reason for his resignation. Jones emphasized that the company's business, customer commitments and product development plans remain the same.

The incident began with reports that Huang was being targeted by foreign intelligence agencies. On the 8th, the board of directors announced that the investigation would focus on outside directors who are independent from management.

On the same day, Huang also acknowledged the affair in a message to employees, apologized, and promised to fully cooperate with the investigation. According to reports, the woman in question is Alice Huang, a former executive at Singaporean data center company Megaspeed (no relation to Jensen Huang).

NVIDIA says it has no reason to believe that U.S. national security or its own secrets have been compromised. In the U.S. House of Representatives, the chairs of three committees asked Huang to explain the situation behind closed doors on November 18.

Stock price temporarily drops 14%, how to see the market falling

On Nov. 9, the first trading day after the board announced its investigation, the NASDAQ Composite Index rose 2.74%, while NVIDIA stock fell 4.27%. On the 12th, when the resignation was announced, the stock was sold down more than 14% from the previous day immediately after the start of trading, and although it subsequently recovered, it closed at $166.19, down 4.34%.

On the day, the NASDAQ Composite Index was down just 0.39%, while rivals AMD and Broadcom's stocks both rose more than 5%. Yahoo Finance, a US financial news site, reports that investors have sold NVIDIA stock and switched to other AI-related stocks.

Adam Kobeissi, founder and editor-in-chief of The Kobeissi Letter, a financial newsletter, expressed optimism in the discussion. Although he acknowledged that Huang was the cornerstone of the company, he vowed that NVIDIA would continue to grow even without him, predicting sales to exceed $500 billion next year.

Amid the debate, stocks have rebounded by about 10% from their morning lows, and Koveisi said investors see the decline as a "buying opportunity." US investment information website 24/7 Wall St. also analyzes that semiconductor development will not stop even if Huang leaves, as there are many excellent technology executives working under him.