Jensen Huang, the co-founder who led Nvidia for more than three decades and became the most recognizable face of the AI boom, has resigned from the company. He has given up the CEO role and his board seat, and he will not remain as a consultant.
His exit removes the only leader Nvidia has ever had, at a moment when its graphics processors power nearly every major AI developer, including OpenAI and Anthropic. According to an analysis by The Globe and Mail, the departure will test one of Silicon Valley's most cherished assumptions: that founders cannot be replaced.
How Huang's Departure Unfolded
Huang stepped down on a Thursday following reports in The New York Times of at least two alleged affairs with employees. The Times also reported a relationship with a woman named Alice Huang, whom U.S. intelligence has described as a Chinese spy.
Authorities had been examining whether her company, AI cloud provider Megaspeed International, was evading export controls by moving Nvidia chips into China. Huang has already been called to testify before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee.
Daniel Ives of Yorkville Ives & Co. said in a note that the board had taken the decisive step it needed to take. Longtime chief financial officer Colette Kress is now serving as interim CEO.
A Founder Without Voting Control
Unlike many of his high-profile peers, Huang never held majority voting control. As of March he owned 3.58 per cent of Nvidia's outstanding shares, which left his future in the hands of the board.
That is partly a matter of timing. Nvidia listed in January 1999, years before Google's 2004 offering popularized dual-class shares that give founders outsized votes. Facebook, Snap, SpaceX and Shopify later followed that model.
Shopify went further in June 2022, granting founder Tobi Lütke a special share that guarantees him 40 per cent of the votes even if his equity stake falls as low as 1.1 per cent. Proxy advisory firms opposed the change.
Tech Leaders Rally Behind Huang
Several prominent founders reacted sharply. Lütke called the board's move a generational blunder on X and suggested Nvidia would now be run by caretakers rather than builders.
Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey and Elon Musk both voiced support for bringing Huang back. Wired reported that some Nvidia employees are petitioning for his return as well.
Analysts Split on How Much Nvidia Depends on One Person
Huang ran Nvidia with an unusually flat structure, with around 60 direct reports, and personally handled engineering direction, customer deals, strategy and relationships with politicians, including U.S. President Donald Trump. Matt Bryson of Wedbush Securities called him the single most important presence at the company.
Bryson said Kress is well regarded on Wall Street, but questions will arise about who provides technical leadership. He does not expect the transition to slow Nvidia's momentum. Morningstar's Brian Colello was more cautious, noting that a successor who matches Huang's technical vision may fall short in dealmaking or motivating teams.
Paul Kedrosky of SK Ventures was skeptical that the company is in danger, pointing to long semiconductor lead times and an established product roadmap. "Nvidia is a machine at this point," he said, though he added that the company faces financial and market pressures regardless of who leads it.
Lessons From Apple and the Case for Succession Plans
Apple offers evidence for both sides of the debate. The company struggled after its board pushed out Steve Jobs in 1985, then produced the iPod and iPhone after his return in 1997. Yet Tim Cook, chosen as successor in 2011, went on to make Apple one of the world's most valuable companies. Trump has now called for Cook to take over at Nvidia.
Janet Bannister of Toronto-based Staircase Ventures said founders often supply a long-term vision that companies can lose without them. Still, she backs succession planning and opposes dual-class structures, arguing that no founder is guaranteed to remain the best person to control a company.
Academic work has also flagged risks. A 2004 paper in the Strategic Management Journal found that when media credit a CEO too heavily for success, that executive can become overconfident.
What Huang's Exit Means for Founder-Led Companies
For Nvidia, the immediate challenge is stability while it searches for a permanent leader without an apparent succession plan. Benjamin Butler of Veritas Investment Research warned that more problems may surface as questions about chip shipments and financing deals are examined.
For founders and boards across the industry, the episode is a reminder that concentrated leadership carries real risk. Whether Nvidia thrives without Huang will shape how investors weigh founder control and succession planning for years to come.
Source: The Globe and Mail
