TECH NEWS – There’s an uncomfortable question around Jensen Huang that needs to be raised sooner rather than later if Nvidia wants a safer long-term future.
Nvidia has spent decades building under CEO Jensen Huang, who turned the company into a $5 trillion giant – and, by both market cap and its role in AI, one of the most valuable firms on the planet. But Bloomberg has kicked off a fresh debate by asking who replaces Huang at the top of Nvidia. The outlet says there is still no clear plan, suggesting Huang has not made a decision. In Big Tech, companies are simply too large to hinge on one individual, which is why they tend to be structured in a way that naturally signals the next CEO. At Apple, for instance, Tim Cook is reportedly expected to be followed by John Ternus, Apple’s vice president of hardware engineering.
With Huang, the picture looks different. He’s known for running an unusually flat hierarchy where more than 60 directors report directly to him. With an engineering mindset, Nvidia’s CEO is also known for micromanaging across multiple areas at once. That hands-on control is widely seen as one of the engines of Nvidia’s success, but it is also a major worry for investors watching Huang’s age and the company’s day-to-day dependence on his decision-making. Names like Ian Buck and Bryan Catanzaro circulate in the background, yet there is no obvious successor who matches Huang’s blend of vision, engineering authority, and – crucially – a larger-than-life presence. Notably, Huang was asked directly about succession on Jodi Shelton’s podcast.
“Well, there will never be another CEO like me because I was raised by the company. On the other hand, with the way the Nvidia management team is set up, I have almost 60 direct reports. These are 60 people who could be world-class CEOs for many other companies. I reason in front of them constantly – literally all the time. Every single decision I make, I’ve made in front of them,” said Huang.
He does not need to name a successor any time soon, nor is he bound to step down on a fixed timeline – something Huang himself has made clear. But Nvidia is now far more mainstream and, arguably, one of the most important companies in the world, which means succession rumors are likely to surface more often as time goes on.
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