Nvidia’s hunt for Jensen Huang’s successor: insiders, rivals and a Trump pick

Nvidia is searching for its first new leader in 33 years after Jensen Huang quit on Thursday, with interim chief Colette Kress, veteran engineers, members of Huang’s own family and the bosses of rival chipmakers all touted as possible successors.

The AI chip giant was left without the only leader it has ever had when Huang, 63, stepped down as president, chief executive and board member. The move was announced with immediate effect, according to a company filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The filing also said chief financial officer Colette Kress would serve as interim CEO while keeping her finance role, and the board would “consider internal and external candidates” for the permanent post.

Kress, who joined Nvidia in 2013 after nearly 25 years in finance roles at companies including Cisco and Microsoft, is widely seen as the front-runner for now. “Colette Kress is the natural interim because she is the executive the market already knows,” Jay Aldebert, chief growth officer at International Services Inc, told Newsweek.

But Huang, who never named a successor, will be hard to replace. Some 60 senior executives reported directly to him, according to tech news site The Information, and Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives told Newsweek it would be a stretch to find an internal candidate able to fill his shoes.

The Information has reported that Kress is not seen as a long-term solution. A Wall Street Journal analysis on Thursday said the job was more likely to go to a technical leader such as Ian Buck, a roughly two-decade Nvidia veteran who led development of CUDA, the software platform that keeps developers tied to the company’s chips.

Business magazine Inc has also named Bryan Catanzaro, vice-president of applied deep learning research.

Huang’s family is also in the frame. His daughter Madison Huang, 35, a senior director of product marketing who joined the company in 2020 after working at French luxury group LVMH, married Nico Caprez in September.

Caprez, a 35-year-old former Swiss ski racer she helped recruit in 2024, was promoted in January to vice-president of global AI infrastructure growth, The Information reported, quoting one employee as saying Huang appeared to be preparing the couple “for that next step”. Huang’s son Spencer also works at Nvidia, in its robotics division.

Outside the company, analysts have floated AMD chief executive Lisa Su, who like Huang was born in Taiwan. The two are distant relatives – a Taiwanese genealogist has described them as first cousins once removed – but AMD is one of Nvidia’s main rivals, which analysts say could complicate any move.

Rene Haas, CEO of Britain’s Arm Holdings, spent seven years at Nvidia earlier in his career, and is another name in circulation according to Aldebert, who also mentioned former Intel chief Pat Gelsinger and Broadcom’s Hock Tan.

“Qualified does not mean available or interested,” said Aldebert.

US President Donald Trump offered his own pick. “NOW THAT Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place – TIM COOK of Apple. A Legend replaces a Legend!” he wrote on Truth Social.

Cook, 66, handed the top job at Apple to John Ternus on September 1 and remains its executive chairman. It was unclear whether Trump had discussed the idea with him, and neither company commented.

The Wall Street Journal called a Cook appointment unlikely but drew a parallel with Apple in 2011, when Cook inherited a large cash pile from Steve Jobs and began returning it to shareholders.

Nvidia’s next leader faces a similar choice: the company held nearly US$100 billion in cash in its last reported quarter, and analysts expect about US$261 billion in free cash flow over the next four quarters, according to FactSet data cited by the Journal. Under Huang, much of that cash went into stakes in customers and suppliers and financing deals across the AI industry.

Huang’s exit followed days of turmoil. The New York Times reported that he had an affair with Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed whom US intelligence agencies concluded was spying for China. Huang acknowledged an affair in a memo to staff on November 8, and the board opened an independent investigation.

On Wednesday, the Times reported a second affair, with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice-president of healthcare, who reported to him. Neither Huang nor Nvidia has named either woman.

Singapore had already moved against Alice Huang. Authorities there said on Thursday that they interviewed her and seized her passport last year while looking into Megaspeed. They did not find enough evidence to show she had committed a crime, but banned her from re-entering the city state because they suspected she had misrepresented her role at the firm, the Associated Press reported.

Trump said on Monday that the FBI was investigating, and Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has said Huang could be subpoenaed.

Beijing has rejected the espionage claims. On Thursday, before the resignation was announced, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said China had made its position clear and urged the US to stop inventing a “spy narrative” as a pretext for a technology blockade.

In Taiwan, where Nvidia’s key suppliers are based, companies played down the immediate impact. Suppliers told local outlet CommonWealth Magazine that short-term AI orders would be largely unaffected, though one senior executive at a major supplier said that with Huang gone, the person “stepping on the accelerator” had left.

Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Nvidia’s most important supplier, closed down 2.3 per cent before the announcement.

Nvidia’s stock tumbled 14 per cent when trading opened in New York on Thursday, then recovered much of the loss to stand about 4 per cent down by midday, according to the Associated Press.

Kress faces her first public test on November 17, when Nvidia reports third-quarter results. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST