Nvidia lost its founding CEO. Can it keep its momentum?
Advice to Nvidia’s board: choose a techie.
Nvidia's co-founder and former CEO, Jensen Huang, resigned on November 12 after being implicated in affairs with a woman identified as a Chinese spy and an executive he reported to. The company, a leading supplier of chips to artificial intelligence data centers, has been thriving under his leadership. However, Huang's sudden departure could have little impact on the company's short-term business, despite a 14% drop in its stock price over five days.
Analysts suggest that long-term success following a founder's departure is more likely when the replacement has technical expertise in addition to business acumen. The history of tech companies replacing their founders shows mixed results. Apple, for instance, struggled after Steve Jobs was replaced by John Sculley, but later succeeded under Jobs' return and then Tim Cook, who has a background in both engineering and business.
Intel, on the other hand, declined after Andrew Grove led the company for nearly two decades and was succeeded by Craig Barrett, who was less technical. Microsoft experienced an erosion of its industry leadership after Bill Gates stepped down as CEO and was replaced by Steve Ballmer, who lacked technical expertise. Satya Nadella, however, refocused Microsoft on cloud computing and AI.
Nvidia currently has a dominant market share in advanced AI chips, but the company has not articulated a clear long-term strategy. Its success invites competition, with companies like Google developing AI chips and others creating open-source alternatives to Nvidia's CUDA software platform.
Written by urgent.news from Straits Times Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
