Will Madison Huang be Nvidia’s next CEO? Jensen Huang answered weeks ago
Huang, 63, acknowledged on November 8 that he had an affair with Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed whom US intelligence agencies have concluded was spying for China. On November 11, The New York Times reported a second relationship, with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, who reports to him. Still, both are director-level in a company where Huang has around 60 direct reports and the final word on every major decision.
“I don’t wish the job on her,” Huang said. “I’m really hoping that the next CEO of the company is already at the company,” he said. He described himself as “completely fireable” and said the bar for the job is supposed to be high. “It’s really, really hard work; it takes a lot of sacrifice,” he said, adding that a CEO cares for his own family “but I’ve got a whole bunch of other families I’m caring for. Five current and former employees told the NYT that Huang has steadily handed his children more power over the past few years.
About a month before Jensen Huang admitted to an extramarital affair, the Nvidia CEO was asked a question that now sits at the centre of the company’s biggest crisis: could his daughter, Madison, be the one to take over? If running Nvidia was what she and her brother Spencer wanted, he added, “they have to go earn it. That answer lands very differently this week. The Wall Street Journal now reports that Nvidia’s board is preparing to oust him. The question came in an interview with Bloomberg, filmed about a month ago, which covers Huang’s flat way of running Nvidia, with as few silos as possible, and what comes after him. “Just as I can be fired, the next CEO has to be hired. On his children, he chose his words carefully. Around the same time, Huang described his dealings with Alice Huang as “completely normal and not unusual. He has since admitted otherwise. Madison Huang is a senior director of product marketing who works on robotics as well as communications and marketing. Spencer Huang is a director of product management with a leading role in Nvidia’s robotics efforts. Huang’s son-in-law, Nico Caprez, works in business development. Their direct access to him has created odd dynamics in meetings, and some customers and suppliers have started cultivating ties with them. Inside the company, that has fed a belief that he is preparing them for the top job.
Arm CEO Rene Haas, who worked at Nvidia from 2006 to 2013, has said Huang resisted one, fearing it would create competition among executives. Huang is also Nvidia’s largest individual shareholder, with a 3.56% stake. Bloomberg reported on November 11 that directors have been working with an outside firm to identify potential replacements for Huang, and are weighing an interim CEO in the meantime. Law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is leading the board’s investigation, a class-action shareholder lawsuit was filed on November 9, and the Republican leaders of three House committees want Huang at a closed-door briefing this month. Nvidia’s stock is down roughly a third from its early October peak, a loss of more than $1.5 trillion in market value. The board planned to meet as soon as November 11 to decide his future, and the NYT reports that the meeting took place, according to the WSJ.
Recruiter Jeff Christian told the NYT that most Nvidia executives run specific products or technology areas, which makes a stand-in hard to find. Removing Huang, he said, is “almost like trying to fire the owner. A month earlier, Huang had said he hoped Nvidia’s next chief was already inside the company. When the Times reached Huang by phone about Powell, he said, “I don’t think you should be talking to me directly,” and hung up. He said he could be fired, and that the next CEO has to be hired.
Nvidia has no public succession plan and no obvious internal candidate. The WSJ notes that Nvidia’s own proxy statement warns it is highly dependent on its longstanding executive team. The board has now brought in outside help. Nvidia declined to comment. If the board does move, Huang’s own words from that interview set the terms. By his standard, that applies to Madison and Spencer as much as anyone else at Nvidia. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.