Few tech leaders are as synonymous with their companies as Jensen Huang. The Nvidia co-founder has been credited with transforming the firm over three decades from a niche graphics-chip designer into a US$4 trillion powerhouse through a series of high-stakes bets.
Now, allegations of extramarital affairs with two women – alongside an internal review and a potential congressional probe – have forced Nvidia’s board to confront a once-unimaginable question: who can replace Huang when there is no heir apparent?
With Nvidia’s board reportedly weighing his removal, analysts said finding a successor would be no small feat, while any transition would risk altering the company’s internal dynamic and supply chain clout.
“Nvidia is not an ordinary company, and Jensen is not an ordinary CEO,” Bernstein Research analysts wrote earlier this week. “He is Nvidia. It is not immediately clear who would, or could, step in should he find himself unwilling or unable to lead.”
TF International Securities analyst Kuo Ming-chi said Huang’s value lay in his ability to translate engineering concepts into high-conviction bets that the entire company rallied behind, giving suppliers strong order visibility and the confidence to keep pace with aggressive specification upgrades.
However, Kuo added that the most practical move for the board could be to gradually reduce Nvidia’s reliance on Huang’s personal decision-making while preparing a succession plan, as “it looks hard for Huang to come out of this unscathed”.
As speculation mounts, several internal and external figures have emerged as potential short- and long-term replacements.
Among the most prominent options is Colette Kress, Nvidia’s chief financial officer since 2013. Highly visible to Wall Street, Kress is viewed by analysts as a stabilising interim choice during a crisis.
Another seasoned insider is Jay Puri, a long-serving executive who joined Nvidia in 2005, previously led worldwide field operations as executive vice-president and currently serves as a senior adviser.
On the technical side, some industry watchers pointed to Ian Buck, vice-president of Nvidia’s hyperscale and high-performance computing business.
Well known to institutional investors, Buck “strikes us as a logical successor to Jensen Huang”, said Brian Colello, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, though he cautioned he had no insight into the board’s deliberations.
Prediction markets, however, are looking into more dramatic scenarios. Data released by Polymarket early on Thursday put the odds of Huang being removed as CEO by the end of the year at 65 per cent, with his daughter, Madison Huang, emerging as the front runner to succeed him.
Lisa Su, CEO of rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices and Jensen Huang’s distant cousin, followed at 7 per cent, ahead of Kress, also at 7 per cent, and Puri at 6 per cent.
“I believe there is a 99 per cent possibility that Jensen Huang will be ousted given the public information so far,” said Chen Yun, an independent semiconductor analyst based in Beijing.
Chen argued that while Kress was well positioned to steady the ship with Wall Street in the short term, Madison Huang was likely to become the long-term successor.
She currently serves as Nvidia’s senior director of product and technical marketing for physical AI platforms. She holds degrees in culinary arts and hospitality and worked for French luxury conglomerate LVMH before joining Nvidia in 2020.
Even so, analysts remain divided on whether the scandal will ultimately unseat Jensen Huang – and how deeply it will affect the business.
Paul Triolo, a partner at advisory firm DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group, said Huang’s fate hinged on the results of Nvidia’s internal investigation and any congressional probe.
Huang would be likely to keep his job if he “merely had an affair, and no corporate data or influence was involved”, Triolo said, though it “would be another story” if sufficient evidence emerged that he was influenced to advocate for China-specific policies.
Regardless of who takes the helm, analysts said Nvidia’s product road map and near-term financial trajectory remained largely insulated by robust demand.
“Deception may have occurred at the CEO level, but it hasn’t crept into Nvidia’s financial forecasts amid the artificial intelligence boom,” said Morningstar’s Colello. “We still forecast high near-term and medium-term demand for Nvidia’s gear, given insatiable AI computing growth.” -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
