Weeks before Jensen Huang’s extramarital affair scandal rocked Nvidia, the CEO made comments about his succession that now seem eerily prescient.
“Just as I can be fired, the next CEO has to be hired,” Huang told Bloomberg’s “The Circuit” in a video released on Thursday and recorded on October 14.
Huang, who has led Nvidia for 33 years, was asked during the interview whether his daughter, Madison Huang — a senior director of product marketing for physical AI at Nvidia — was in line to take over.
“First of all, I don’t hope the job on her,” Huang said. “And the reason for that is because if that’s their aspiration, Spencer or Madison’s, they have to go earn it.” Spencer is Huang’s son, who works as Nvidia’s director of robotics product.
Huang’s newly released comments come following a week of tumult for Nvidia. The CEO admitted on Sunday to being “unfaithful” to his wife while the company’s board said it was investigating whether he was targeted by a foreign-intelligence effort.
The New York Times on Wednesday reported that Huang had a second affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, who reported directly to him, citing five unnamed former employees.
On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia’s board was preparing to remove Huang, sending the company’s shares down as much as 8% in after-hours trading. Nvidia did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
Nvidia’s succession crisis
The reports have raised a question that has long shadowed the world’s most valuable chip company: Who, if anyone, is ready to replace Huang?
Nvidia has not publicly named a successor.
Its famously flat structure, in which Huang has as many as 60 direct reports, has made it difficult to identify a clear No. 2.
Analysts and former employees have pointed to CFO Colette Kress, who could serve as an interim leader, and Ian Buck, the longtime executive who leads Nvidia’s data-center and accelerated-computing business, as potential contenders.
Huang said last month that he hoped the next CEO would come from inside Nvidia — even if he said at the time he had no intention of leaving soon.
“I’m really hoping that the next CEO of the company’s already at the company,” he told Bloomberg. “But 20 years from now, I hope I stay healthy and I hope I continue to earn my keep.”
Huang said it was his job to ensure Nvidia develops its own next CEO.
“We should create the conditions by which the company continues to thrive,” Huang said, “and that the next leader of the company is already at Nvidia.”
The CEO said running Nvidia carries responsibilities that should not be taken lightly. “I’m responsible for an entire industry,” Huang said. “The pressure of being the CEO is high, and it’s supposed to be high.”
