Nvidia board prepares to oust CEO, name interim chief - Semafor
Some members of Nvidia’s board favor appointing Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim CEO at the beleaguered chipmaker if CEO and founder Jensen Huang is ousted, according to people familiar with the matter.
The full board has yet to make a decision. But the company’s directors are scheduled to meet Wednesday evening, these people said.
Nvidia’s board has debated whether, as part of its potential replacement of Huang, to introduce a chief operating officer to serve alongside the interim chief executive, some of the people said.
Semafor earlier confirmed that Nvidia’s board is preparing to oust Huang as soon as Wednesday, after media reports detailed that he had a second extramarital affair. The Nvidia board briefed the White House on its planned meeting, according to a senior administration official.
Nvidia has tapped an outside search firm to find the company’s next CEO, Bloomberg reported. One person being considered for the top job is Apple hardware chief Johny Srouji, who was among the executives considered for Intel CEO in 2019, according to another person familiar with the matter.
Nvidia’s stock fell more than 8% in after-hours trading, hitting a 52-week low. Spokespeople for the company didn’t immediately provide a comment.
Huang’s firing would cap a whirlwind saga that’s seen the global frontman for the AI boom admit to an affair with a suspected Chinese spy. The $4 trillion company’s long-tenured board announced a Wachtell Lipton-led probe into whether Huang may have divulged corporate secrets or endangered US national security.
In addition to providing many of the most advanced chips for hyperscalers, Nvidia has entered into billions of dollars worth of financing deals underwriting the AI buildout.
Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent a letter to members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet on Wednesday asking them to preserve documents related to Nvidia’s chip exports to China or entities that could divert such chips to the country. They also asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and White House chief of staff Stephen Miller to preserve documents and communications concerning Huang and the suspected Chinese operative he had an affair with, as well as the correspondence between Huang and Trump.“This incident raises significant concerns about the federal government’s ability to effectively enforce our export controls and protect our national security,” the senators wrote in the letter. “Reports suggest that officials within the government — including at the White House, State Department, and Commerce Department — were aware of concerns about NVIDIA, its relationship with Megaspeed, and the suspected Chinese intelligence operation, yet did not move to block the continued flow of advanced AI chips.”Brendan Ruberry contributed to this report.
