Nvidia has launched a formal selection process to find a successor to Jensen Huang. The company announced on Thursday that CFO Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO, and the board stated it will consider both internal and external candidates. Huang has never publicly designated a successor before. In October, he stated that he hoped the next CEO of Nvidia would already be within the company. Below are 11 potential candidates mentioned in media reports and market speculation:
I. Internal Candidates
1. Colette Kress: Nvidia CFO and current interim CEO. Analysts and investors consider her a top candidate, citing her financial background and deep understanding of the company's business and customers as advantages. She has represented Nvidia in investor conference calls for over a decade and is one of the company's most well-known executives. However, her financial background has also raised questions about whether her technical capabilities match Huang's.
2. Ian Buck: Vice President and General Manager of Nvidia's Hyperscale Computing and High-Performance Computing business. 1. **[Name of Candidate]** With an engineering background, having participated in the development of the CUDA computing platform, he has garnered attention due to his technical expertise and important position within the company.
2. **[Name of Candidate]** Chris Malachowsky: Co-founder of NVIDIA, he co-founded the company with Jensen Huang in 1993 and has long been involved in the company's core technology development, primarily focusing on engineering and technology management. However, he currently has limited involvement in the company's day-to-day operations, and his willingness to serve as CEO remains questionable.
3. **[Name of Candidate]** Madison Huang: Jensen Huang's daughter, currently a senior director at NVIDIA, responsible for product marketing for the physical AI business. Huang's son, Spencer, and son-in-law, Nico Caprez, also work at NVIDIA, with the latter responsible for global AI infrastructure business growth. However, Huang's children currently hold relatively junior positions compared to senior executives.
4. **[Name of Candidate]** René Haas: CEO of Arm, previously worked at NVIDIA, possessing chip industry experience and strong public communication skills. 6. Tim Cook: Former Apple CEO. Trump publicly stated on Thursday that Cook should take over Nvidia. However, it remains unclear whether Cook is willing to take the job.
7. Johny Srouji: Apple's Chief Hardware Officer, previously responsible for the development of custom chips for iPhones, Macs, and other Apple devices.
8. Nikesh Arora: CEO of Palo Alto Networks, previously President and COO of SoftBank and worked at Google for ten years. However, his experience is primarily focused on cybersecurity and other technology areas, rather than chip development.
9. Lisa Su: CEO of AMD, Nvidia's main competitor. However, she might prefer to compete with Nvidia while it is at a disadvantage rather than take over the company.
10. Thomas Kurian: CEO of Google Cloud, responsible for cloud infrastructure, enterprise software, and AI services. He has experience managing large clients and related technologies. However, his resume lacks a chip design background.
11. Pat Gelsinger: Former CEO of Intel, however, he failed to successfully transform Intel into a stronger AI competitor. His name currently appears primarily in online speculation, with no public indication that Nvidia's board is considering him.
