# Nvidia faces life after Jensen Huang

> The AI chip giant's co-founder resigned over an affair with a suspected Chinese spy. Now Nvidia must find a permanent leader while its stock plummets.
- Title: Nvidia faces life after Jensen Huang · BBC News | Shortify
- Summary: The AI chip giant's co-founder resigned over an affair with a suspected Chinese spy. Now Nvidia must find a permanent leader while its stock plummets.
- Keywords: nvidia, jensen huang, colette kress, chris malachowsky, ian buck, tim cook, rene haas, ai semiconductors, leadership change, corporate governance, BBC News
- Source: BBC News — https://bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqgm37dv20e8o
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: nvidia, jensen huang, colette kress, chris malachowsky, ian buck, tim cook, rene haas, ai semiconductors, leadership change, corporate governance, news, world
## Huang steps down over affairs
Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang resigned Thursday over reports of extramarital affairs, one involving a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy.
## Kress takes interim control
Chief financial officer Colette Kress is now in charge as Nvidia faces one of its biggest challenges: finding a permanent leader for the AI chip-making giant.
## The finance chief option
Kress has been an industry veteran for over thirty years at firms like Cisco and Microsoft. She has fronted every earnings call alongside Huang and is a familiar trusted voice for the market.

> familiar and trusted voice for the market at a time when it badly needs one
## The co-founder and engineer
Chris Malachowsky, who founded Nvidia alongside Huang, is another option. Ian Buck, who oversees high-performance computing, has also emerged as a candidate if the company wants an engineer in the top job.
## External candidates emerge
Nvidia could look outside for a permanent replacement. Tim Cook, Apple's former chief executive, and Rene Haas, chief executive of Arm Holdings, have been suggested as possible choices.
## Stock plummets on resignation
Nvidia shares opened down more than thirteen percent, wiping more than half a trillion dollars off the firm's share market value when markets opened in New York.
## Analysts downgrade forecasts
Several major investment firms have downgraded their forecasts for Nvidia. Bernstein Research halved its share price target and said it prefers to watch from the sidelines.

> We've had enough and prefer to watch from the sidelines.
## Trust in Huang was the draw
Ray Wang, chief executive of Constellation Research, said the crisis is whether the new chief executive will have the same appeal as Huang. Many partnerships and investments were made because of trust with Jensen.

> a lot of these partnerships and investments have been made because of the trust with with Jensen
## Key takeaway

Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang resigned Thursday over extramarital affairs, leaving CFO Colette Kress as interim leader while the company searches for a permanent replacement.