Three Israelis emerge as possible successors to Nvidia chief Jensen Huang, local media says

Three Israeli executives - Nvidia's chief technology officer Michael Kagan, Mellanox co-founder and former CEO Eyal Waldman, and Apple's chief hardware officer Johny Srouji - have been named as possible successors to the company's outgoing CEO Jensen Huang. Huang stepped down as the artificial intelligence chipmaker's chief executive earlier this year, with Nvidia's board appointing CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO.

The company is considering both internal and external candidates for the permanent role. Kagan co-founded Mellanox in 1999 and joined Nvidia after its acquisition of the company in 2020 for approximately $6.9 billion. He has since served as Nvidia's CTO, focusing on technologies that enable large-scale processor communication within data centers.

Waldman co-founded Mellanox and served as its CEO before the acquisition. Apple's Srouji is a key figure behind the company's in-house chip development. Huang's resignation came amid allegations of personal indiscretions, including an alleged affair with a Chinese businesswoman suspected of being an intelligence asset for Beijing.

China has denied the espionage claims. Huang acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife in an email to employees, apologizing to family and colleagues. The controversy around Huang's resignation has raised questions about the company's business dealings in China, where its advanced AI chips are a focus of US export-control policy.