In my post this afternoon, I said, “The board won’t give us a straight answer; 8% is just the appetizer.” Well, we got an answer, and it was more drastic than I expected: Huang just quit.
NVIDIA’s own announcement: Jensen Huang has resigned as president, CEO, and board member, effective immediately. After 33 years, at age 63, with a 3.6% stake, he’s even leaving the board. CFO Colette Kress is taking over. She’s 59, joined the company in 2013, and is a veteran of Microsoft and Cisco. She’ll serve as interim CEO while continuing as CFO, as the company looks for a permanent successor. The board has also appointed Harvey Jones as chair for the first time.
On one side are the bargain hunters: the chips are still the same chips, earnings are still due on the 17th, and Kress has managed the company’s finances for 13 years—changing CEOs won’t bring the sky down. On the other side is reality: this is a $4 trillion company that’s been run by one person for 33 years, and now he’s gone. The list of potential successors even includes Apple’s Johny Srouji—along with NVIDIA’s own CTO, Michael Kagan—which suggests there isn’t an obvious internal candidate either.
My take: the scariest thing isn’t the resignation itself; it’s that NVIDIA has finally acknowledged its biggest risk: “having only one Jensen Huang.” The 8% drop after hours was a drop in price. Today’s drop is a loss of faith in the idea that “everything will be fine as long as Jensen’s here.” Until there’s a clear successor before earnings on the 17th, the stock is likely to keep wobbling.
Which side are you on? Without Jensen, do you think “it doesn’t matter who takes over—the chips will keep selling,” or “this company is Jensen himself, and his departure means it needs to be repriced”?
#NVIDIA
NVIDIA’s own announcement: Jensen Huang has resigned as president, CEO, and board member, effective immediately. After 33 years, at age 63, with a 3.6% stake, he’s even leaving the board. CFO Colette Kress is taking over. She’s 59, joined the company in 2013, and is a veteran of Microsoft and Cisco. She’ll serve as interim CEO while continuing as CFO, as the company looks for a permanent successor. The board has also appointed Harvey Jones as chair for the first time.
On one side are the bargain hunters: the chips are still the same chips, earnings are still due on the 17th, and Kress has managed the company’s finances for 13 years—changing CEOs won’t bring the sky down. On the other side is reality: this is a $4 trillion company that’s been run by one person for 33 years, and now he’s gone. The list of potential successors even includes Apple’s Johny Srouji—along with NVIDIA’s own CTO, Michael Kagan—which suggests there isn’t an obvious internal candidate either.
My take: the scariest thing isn’t the resignation itself; it’s that NVIDIA has finally acknowledged its biggest risk: “having only one Jensen Huang.” The 8% drop after hours was a drop in price. Today’s drop is a loss of faith in the idea that “everything will be fine as long as Jensen’s here.” Until there’s a clear successor before earnings on the 17th, the stock is likely to keep wobbling.
Which side are you on? Without Jensen, do you think “it doesn’t matter who takes over—the chips will keep selling,” or “this company is Jensen himself, and his departure means it needs to be repriced”?
#NVIDIA
