Nvidia board weighs succession options amid CEO controversy

Nvidia's board is said to be evaluating potential successors to CEO Jensen Huang as allegations involving his personal relationship with a Chinese businesswoman raise questions about his future at the company. Huang, who has led Nvidia since its 1993 founding, is credited with expanding the firm from a modest graphics-chip maker into a central player in artificial intelligence hardware.

Potential internal candidates highlighted include Ian Buck, a vice president who oversees high-performance computing and helped develop the CUDA platform that underpins much of Nvidia's AI work, and chief financial officer Colette Kress, who has been with the company since 2013 and could serve as an interim chief executive. Analysts note that a transition might require splitting the combined responsibilities that Huang traditionally held.

Three Israeli executives are also mentioned as possible options. Michael Kagan, Nvidia's chief technology officer and a co-founder of Mellanox, brings expertise in data-center networking. Former Mellanox founder Eyal Waldman, who previously led the company before its sale to Nvidia, has experience running a semiconductor firm, though he is no longer part of Nvidia's management. Apple senior vice president Johny Srouji, a key architect of Apple Silicon, has been cited in media reports as a speculative candidate, though no formal interest has been confirmed.

Outside the company, AMD chief executive Lisa Su and Arm chief executive Rene Haas have been named as possible rivals with the requisite experience, but there is no evidence of active discussions with Nvidia. For now, most reports focus on Buck and Kress as the leading prospects, acknowledging that any successor would inherit a firm at the core of the global AI boom and the U.S.–China technology rivalry.