Nvidia is now facing a situation that until recently few thought about: a future without the leadership of Jensen Huang.
Jensen Huang, CEO and co-founder of the artificial intelligence chip giant, has been embroiled in a major scandal after it was revealed that he had had extramarital affairs, including one with a woman suspected of spying for China.
Nvidia's board of directors announced on Thursday (November 12) that Huang Renxun has resigned, effective immediately.
Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will temporarily replace him.
The tech giant is facing one of its toughest challenges since its founding: finding the right person to long-term lead a company that Huang co-founded more than 30 years ago and built into one of the world's most valuable companies.
Let’s take a look at who is currently being viewed as potential successors.
treasurer
Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO until the company finds a formal successor.
Kress has more than 30 years of experience in the industry and has held senior positions in technology companies such as Cisco and Microsoft.
She is also Nvidia's executive vice president and has witnessed the company's transformation from producing video game chips in the early 1990s to an artificial intelligence semiconductor giant.
Josh Gilbert, an analyst at investment firm eToro, said Kress "attends every earnings call" with Huang and is a "familiar and trusted voice" for investors at a time when the market is in desperate need of stabilizing confidence.
However, Gilbert believes becoming CEO permanently may be another story. Nvidia is known for its technological superiority, so the company may want to have an engineer at the helm.
Co-founder and Engineer
Another possible candidate is Chris Malachowsky. He co-founded Nvidia with Jen-Hsun Huang and Curtis Priem, and is the only senior executive in the company with the same seniority as Jen-Hsun Huang.
Malakovsky played a key role in developing Nvidia's computing technology.
If the company wants engineers for top leadership positions, Ian Buck, who runs Nvidia's high-performance computing business, is also a potential candidate.
Buck was one of the early pioneers in pushing the use of graphics processing units (GPUs) beyond video games.
"He may be able to maintain Nvidia's technological advantage, but his ability to manage broader commercial partnerships and address geopolitical challenges will be scrutinized," said Charu Chanana, investment strategist at Saxo Bank.
Currently, Nvidia's industry-leading processors are widely regarded as the gold standard for artificial intelligence development.
Huang's children also hold management positions at Nvidia, but they are relatively young and have less experience.
Apple and Arm executives
Jun Bei Liu, founder and chief portfolio manager of Ten Cap, said that Nvidia is likely to prefer to promote candidates from within initially, but it may also consider external talents when looking for long-term successors.
Experts have proposed several technology industry leaders outside Nvidia as potential candidates.
Liu Junbei said that former Apple CEO Tim Cook may be one of the choices because he is familiar with global supply chain management. However, she also questioned whether Cook, now Apple's chairman, would be willing to leave the iPhone maker.
Liu Junbei and Chanana also mentioned Rene Haas, CEO of British chip giant Arm Holdings.
Nvidia's processors are produced with the help of multiple chip manufacturers around the world, including Taiwan's TSMC and South Korea's SK Hynix and Samsung.
Chanana said that Haas is familiar with the management of listed companies and has experience in the semiconductor industry, but Nvidia's business model is quite different from Arm.
Liu Junbei said: "The difficulty is to find someone who can combine Huang's technical knowledge, strategic vision, and the connections he has established in the global technology industry."
What does the future hold for Jen-Hsun Huang?
Ten Cap’s Liu Junbei has long believed that it was only a matter of time before Huang Renxun stepped down as Nvidia CEO.
"The issue is no longer simply about personal integrity, but about corporate governance, national security concerns and how to maintain confidence in the leadership of one of the world's most strategically important companies," she said.
Several major investment firms have cut their forecasts for the chip giant. This shift is fairly rare given that investors have long been bullish on Nvidia.
"Our gut tells us there may be some deeper issues with this matter that have not yet been fully uncovered," Stacy Rasgon, senior U.S. semiconductor analyst at Bernstein Research, wrote in a note to investors.
