What’s next for Nvidia?
Network World ·
Nvidia co-founder and its only CEO ever Jensen Huang resigned on Thursday, November 12, to be succeeded by Nvidia’s Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress , at least temporarily. Kress was more or less the default choice because there were no other C-level executives available. Nvidia has operated without a chief operating officer and has no executive whose expertise spans across the entire breadth of its product line. Nvidia’s executive suite consists of vice presidents covering siloed areas of expertise. One of them, Ian Buck, the data center division chief, is an odds-on favoring among analysts to take the CEO job. That’s if he wants it. One industry watcher told this reporter that several years ago, he asked several Nvidia vice presidents if they wanted the big chair, because Nvidia had no clear successor to Huang and to a man they said no way. “I can’t and don’t want to do what he does,” said the analyst, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “He is a one-man force, never sleeps, always on an airplane, smart as hell. Very hard (maybe impossible) act to follow, more like Jobs than Jobs was.” The analogy of replacing Steve Jobs is obvious but not exactly accurate. Jobs was charisma and charm, not an engineer. Huang has a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford and speaks the language of engineers. Huang has structured the company basically around him, with no real leadership team to take over, said Jack Gold, president and principal analyst of J.Gold Associates, LLC. “The market is focused on a succession plan for the company, which doesn’t exist. So if he’s gone, what does that mean for the structure and performance of management of the company? I think that’s the real concern, and it should be,” Gold said. “There is some real risk that his leaving could hamper new technology deployments and create a bottleneck in R&D in a very fast-moving field that Nvidia has essentially been able to define through sheer tech prowess under his leadership. Will that be affected? That’s the real issue in my mind.” “Nvidia will continue to function and deliver. But this could have an impact on longer term strategy and deliverables if they can’t quickly get the ship in order under new leadership that can carry forward. Other companies have come through similar issues. Some have struggled and not fully recovered, but others did very well when leadership changed. We should have a clearer picture in the next 6-12 months if Nvidia’s momentum can carry it through this upheaval,” Gold added in a LinkedIn post . Barring another shoe to drop, Nvidia’s next public statements will be on the 17th as it reports quarterly earnings. Kress traditionally does the bulk of the talking on the earnings call with Wall Street analysts anyway, but next week call will be interesting regardless. Huang resigned in the face of reports he had had at least two extramarital affairs, including one with an alleged Chinese spy and one with a direct report.