The Jensen Huang affair has reached a stage that looked impossible a week ago: Nvidia's board met yesterday (Wednesday) to decide whether to oust the CEO and founder, who has led the company since founding it 33 years ago. According to The Wall Street Journal, the board was preparing to remove Huang, and according to CNBC the meeting stretched into the evening. As of publication, Nvidia had not announced a decision.
What changed?
On Tuesday, The New York Times reported another romantic relationship of Huang's, this time with a senior Nvidia vice president who reports directly to him. That is a material change: the relationship with Alice Huang, the former Megaspeed executive, raised national security questions, but a relationship with a direct report is a corporate governance and conflict-of-interest problem, the kind that has gotten CEOs of large companies fired before.
What happened to the stock?
Nvidia stock fell more than 8% in after-hours trading following the WSJ report. According to Tom's Hardware, the stock has lost about 20% of its value since the affair began. In a company worth trillions, that is hundreds of billions of dollars.
Who could replace him?
Nvidia has no known successor. According to reports, experts have floated CFO Colette Kress as a possible interim CEO, or lead independent director Stephen Neal. Another option, according to a Fortune analysis, is for the board to keep Huang in the role but limit his authority and increase oversight. A company spokesperson said Huang is committed to continuing in his role.
The Israeli connection
Nvidia is one of the largest employers in Israeli tech, with a development center built in part on the Mellanox acquisition. For the thousands of employees in Israel, much of whose pay comes in stock, the share price and the leadership question are not a headline but money and careers. Techwire will update here as soon as a decision is published.
