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Nvidia now faces a scenario that many could not have imagined until very recently: a future without Jensen Huang.
On Thursday, the powerful co-founder of the artificial intelligence chip giant resigned over reports of extramarital affairs, including one with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy.
CFO Colette Kress is temporarily leading the company, while Nvidia faces one of its biggest challenges: finding the right person to lead the company permanently, after Huang helped found it more than three decades ago and turned it into one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Here we review the most prominent names proposed to succeed him.
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Finance Director
Image source: Nvidia
Colette Chris has over 30 years of experience in the technology sector, having previously held senior positions at companies such as Cisco and Microsoft.
Chris, who also serves as executive vice president at NVIDIA, has seen the company transform from making chips for video games in the early 1990s to a major force in the semiconductor industry for artificial intelligence.
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Josh Gilbert, an analyst at the investment firm eToro, said that Chris “has led every financial conference call alongside Hwang,” and that she is “a familiar and trusted voice in the market at a time when it desperately needs one.”
But assuming her position permanently may be a different matter, according to Gilbert, as the company, known for its technological superiority, may want someone with an engineering background to lead it.
Co-Founder and Engineer
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Another option is Chris Malakowski, who founded NVIDIA with Huang and Curtis Brehm, and is the only executive of Hwang's seniority at the company.
Malakowski played a key role in developing Nvidia's computing technologies.
The name of Ian Buck, who supervises the company's high-performance computing work, has also emerged as a potential candidate if NVIDIA wants to assign its top position to an engineer.
Buck was one of the first pioneers who contributed to expanding the use of graphics processors to include applications beyond video games.
“He may be able to maintain Nvidia's technological edge, but his ability to manage the broader network of business relationships and deal with geopolitical challenges will come under scrutiny,” said Charu Chanana, investment strategist at Saxo Investment Bank.
Today, NVIDIA's leading processors are widely considered the reference standard for artificial intelligence development.
Huang's sons also hold executive positions at Nvidia, but they are relatively young and have limited experience.
Apple and ARM leaders
Nvidia will likely prefer to hire someone from within initially, but may look outside the company for a permanent successor to Huang, said Jun-Pei Liu, TenCap's founder and chief portfolio manager.
Experts have put forward several names of technology sector leaders outside Nvidia.
Liu said that Tim Cook, former CEO of Apple, could be a potential choice, given his experience managing global supply chains. But she wondered whether he was ready to leave the iPhone maker, where he serves as chairman of the board.
Image source: Reuters
Liu and Chanana also suggested Rene Haas, CEO of ARM Holdings, the British chip design giant.
NVIDIA's processors are manufactured with the help of chipmakers around the world, including Taiwan's TSMC and South Korea's SK Hynix and Samsung.
Chanana said that Haas has experience leading a publicly listed company, and will bring experience in the semiconductor sector, despite the significant difference between Nvidia's business model and Arm's business model.
“The challenge is to find someone who combines Jensen's technical understanding, strategic vision and relationships in the global technology sector,” Liu said.
What awaits Nvidia now?
Liu, of TenCap, believed that it was only a matter of time before Huang stepped down as NVIDIA CEO.
She said: “The issue is no longer just about personal behavior, but rather about corporate governance, concerns related to national security, and maintaining confidence in the leadership of one of the most strategically important companies in the world.”
Several major investment companies lowered their expectations for the chip giant, in a rare shift given investors' continued optimism about the company for years.
An early sign of this emerged as markets opened in New York, shortly after Hwang's resignation was announced.
Nvidia stock opened trading with a decline of more than 13 percent, wiping out more than half a trillion dollars from the company's market value.
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“Our gut tells us that we probably haven't fully figured out what might unfold here,” Stacey Rasgon, chief U.S. semiconductor analyst at Bernstein Research, wrote in a note to investors.
Rasgon cut the target price set by Bernstein for Nvidia stock by half, and said: “We have had enough, and we prefer to watch from outside the market.”
Ray Wang, CEO of Constellation Research, said that the crisis is more about Nvidia itself than the broader artificial intelligence sector, as the company must consider whether the person it appoints as CEO has the same charisma as Huang.
He added: "This is the crux of the problem, because many of these partnerships and investments were made thanks to trust in Jensen."
Reporting contributed by: Callie Hayes
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