Huang leaves and search begins
Nvidia’s board approached Arm CEO Rene Haas as a potential successor to Jensen Huang, according to the Financial Times. Nvidia told Reuters that the company has not formally engaged any candidate and that any speculation regarding individual candidates is premature. Jensen Huang resigned Thursday after 33 years leading the company he co-founded following reports of extramarital relationships, including one with a business executive suspected by U.S. officials of having Chinese intelligence ties. The company stated it has no reason to believe its secrets were compromised. Colette Kress now leads as interim CEO and Harvey Jones became board chair. I view the internal employee reaction as a complication, as an internal suggestion-box post attracted more than 1,600 comments, many of which urged staff to "bring back THE boss." This internal push for Huang’s reinstatement does not mean the board opened talks to bring him back, especially as the new leader must manage delicate relationships with governments as Washington debates tighter export restrictions on China.
Haas and other candidates
Haas, 64, is a Silicon Valley-based semiconductor executive whose career spans engineering, product development and sales. He spent seven years at Nvidia as vice president and general manager of its computing products business before moving to Arm in 2013. He worked at chip companies Tensilica and Scintera Networks after earning an electrical engineering degree from Clarkson University. Haas steered Arm to its September 2023 IPO with an initial valuation of $54.5 billion, which occurred after Nvidia’s proposed $40 billion takeover of Arm collapsed under regulatory pressure. Arm reported $1.44 billion in revenue for the quarter ended September 30, an increase of 27% from the previous year. Royalties from data-center chips doubled during that period, though Arm said initial commercial deliveries of its new CPU remain on track for early 2027. Arm licenses chip designs to companies including Apple, Amazon and Qualcomm and earns fees and royalties when customers use its technology. Haas must untangle his current roles as Arm CEO and CEO of SoftBank Group International to accept a position at Nvidia because the two companies are partners with overlapping interests in data-center hardware. I find Haas the most logical candidate compared to Nvidia data-center executive Ian Buck or AMD chief Lisa Su.
