Jensen Huang Resigns From Nvidia—Here's Who Could Replace Him

0:00Jensen Wang, billionaire and CEO of AI chip giant NVIDIA, resigned his position on Thursday morning after reports of a second affair with an NVIDIA employee days after he admitted to a relationship with another tech executive that intelligence officials believe may have been a Chinese spy. NVIDIA CFO Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO in his absence until a permanent successor can be named, the board said, adding it is launching a search for his replacement that will include internal and external candidates. The board acknowledged Wang's profound contributions to NVIDIA, which he co-founded more than 30 years ago, and thanked him for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry.

0:41The resignation comes after reports the board was preparing to oust Wong amid growing scrutiny over his extramarital affairs, including one with an alleged Chinese spy and an alleged second one with Kimberly Powell, NVIDIA's vice president of healthcare, who reported to Wong. Speculation has already begun on external and internal candidates who could replace the man synonymous with the AI boom, including Cress. Now, other internal names that have been floated in the media include Michael Kagan, current chief technology officer who founded supercomputer networking company Mellanox, which was acquired by NVIDIA in 2020, and Jay Puri, former executive vice president of worldwide field operations, who retired in July.

1:21Ian Buck, vice president of hyperscale and high-performance computing at NVIDIA, has also been floated, but analysts have noted he lacks broad operational experience. Externally, the information floated the name Lisa Su, who runs NVIDIA's most credible rival, Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, and TechCrunch brought up billionaire and former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt. Other names include Johnny Sruji, Apple's chief hardware officer, and Rene Haas, a former NVIDIA executive who is now CEO of British semiconductor and software design company Arm. Some analysts have also floated the possibility of a co-CEO structure to fill the many roles filled by Wong, which would pair technical and operational or financial leaders.

2:02Tesla and SpaceX creator Elon Musk said Wednesday it would be an honor to hire Wong. He's made several other comments in support of his fellow billionaire since news of the affair broke, including tweeting, I agree, to a post from Sequoia Capital partner Sean Maguire, who said that while Wang did something incredibly dumb, there was likely no malicious intent and Wang remains irreplaceable for America's AI leadership. Wang is worth an estimated$131.7 billion as of Thursday morning, and he's the 13th richest person in the world. Meanwhile, Nvidia shares dropped 10 % after the opening bell Thursday.

2:37Last week, before news of his affair was confirmed, he was worth roughly$155 billion. dollars. The affair admission has sparked speculation that Wang and his wife Laurie could be headed for divorce after 41 years of marriage and Laurie could walk away with tens of billions of dollars if they do. For more on this story click the link in the description.