Jensen Huang Has No Successor
- Core Viewpoint: NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang faces governance scrutiny due to a personal matter. Although the board has publicly expressed confidence and the company's day-to-day operations can be maintained, the company has long lacked a clear CEO succession plan, and its governance structure—which relies heavily on its founder—is being tested.
- Key Elements:
- Jensen Huang holds approximately 3.58% of the shares, and the company does not have a dual-class share structure. Ten of the 11 board members are independent directors, and the core of governance lies with the board rather than the CEO as an individual.
- The board has established a committee of independent directors and hired external legal counsel to review the relevant situation. Jensen Huang himself supports the investigation and has committed to continuing to perform his duties.
- NVIDIA's management structure is highly flat, with approximately 36 executives reporting directly to Jensen Huang, but none of them is a clear potential successor.
- Jensen Huang has publicly stated that he does not believe in formal succession plans and advocates completing the transfer of leadership through the continuous transmission of knowledge and experience, without designating a successor.
- His children and son-in-law all work at NVIDIA and have been promoted, sparking speculation about a family-business character, but none of the three has been listed as a company executive or identified as a successor.
- The earnings call on November 17 and the closed-door briefing to the U.S. House of Representatives on November 18 will become key information disclosure moments revealing future developments.
Original author: Su Yang
Original editor: Xu Qingyang
Original source: Tencent Technology
On November 9, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made a self-revelation about an "affair," and the question that followed was: can he still continue to lead this company with a market cap of roughly $4.5 trillion? If not, who will lead Nvidia next?
As countless netizens watched the drama unfold, Trump publicly stated his support for Jensen Huang continuing as Nvidia CEO. "Jensen Huang is a 'man of integrity' who has made outstanding contributions to America's development."
Almost at the same time, the Nvidia board of directors established a committee composed of independent directors and engaged external independent legal counsel to review the relevant situation.
The Nvidia board stated that it still has confidence in Jensen Huang and his management team. Huang himself also supports the investigation and has pledged to continue fulfilling his CEO duties to ensure the company operates normally.
Assuming this incident prevents Jensen Huang from properly performing his duties, who would take over Nvidia? And could the existing board and management team maintain the company's normal operations?
The 11 Most "Powerful" People
Since founding Nvidia in 1993, Jensen Huang has served as the company's CEO, having led this tech company for more than 33 years to date.
To the outside world, Jensen Huang is Nvidia, and Nvidia is Jensen Huang.
Nvidia uses a one-share-one-vote common stock system and has not established a dual-class share structure; shareholders enjoy voting rights corresponding to the number of shares they hold.
According to Nvidia's proxy statement released in May 2026, as of March 23 of that year, Jensen Huang beneficially owned approximately 870.6 million shares of the company's common stock, representing about 3.58% of total shares outstanding. Subsequent insider trading filings (Form 4) show that Huang's shareholding has been adjusted due to charitable gifts, tax withholding upon vesting of restricted stock units, and other reasons.
Based on the closing price of $186.64 on November 6, the market value of Jensen Huang's Nvidia shares is approximately $162.49 billion.
Form 4 change details submitted by Nvidia to the SEC in March 2026, adding approximately 937,000 shares of common stock, bringing Jensen Huang's direct holdings to approximately 70.63 million shares
In other words, the long-perceived "two-in-one" phenomenon is not unbreakable—although Jensen Huang is the founder and long-time helmsman, he has not obtained absolute control over the company through special voting rights.
From a governance perspective, the Nvidia board of directors, elected by shareholder vote, is the absolute core of corporate governance.
On May 7, the size of Nvidia's board expanded from 10 to 11 members, with former Goldman Sachs vice chairman Suzanne Nora Johnson filling the newly added seat, effective July 13.
List of current Nvidia board members
Currently, among the 11 members of Nvidia's board, Jensen Huang is the only non-independent director; the other 10 are all independent directors. The board has established specialized bodies including the Audit Committee, the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, and the Compensation Committee, which are responsible for financial oversight, director nominations, corporate governance, and executive compensation, respectively.
Independent directors holding the majority means that major governance matters are not decided by Jensen Huang alone—this independent investigation is one example.
According to arrangements announced by the company, the investigation is led by a committee composed of independent directors, with external legal counsel participating. Since the investigation involves the CEO himself, having independent directors lead the review helps avoid Jensen Huang directly intervening in investigation decisions and safeguards the independence of the investigation.
Prediction platform Polymarket's forecast on the likelihood of Jensen Huang announcing resignation before December 31
Data from prediction platform Polymarket shows that the probability of "Jensen Huang announcing resignation or removal before December 31" fluctuated sharply at one point, once exceeding 75%, and currently stands at around 17%.
Although prediction markets have focused on the year-end, Nvidia's board has not actually disclosed a specific timeline for the investigation and resolution.
For the public and investors, more critical than the predicted timing are two upcoming information disclosure windows: one is Nvidia's earnings call at 5 p.m. ET on November 17, where management will inevitably face intense questioning from analysts and the market; the other is a closed-door briefing on November 18 requested by three important U.S. House committees, requiring Jensen Huang himself to attend.
These two time points may become key moments that reveal what happens next.
Jensen Huang Has No Successor
List of executives who report directly to Jensen Huang
If the board is responsible for oversight and major decisions, then the core of Nvidia's day-to-day operations is the large executive team directly managed by Jensen Huang.
Nvidia's management structure has a very distinctive feature: it is highly flat.
According to a Bloomberg report in January of this year, Jensen Huang has not set up a multi-layered management system in the way traditional large enterprises do. Media outlets including Business Insider have reported that the number of executives directly reporting to Jensen Huang once reached around 55, before the list was reduced to about 36.
These executives span areas including strategy, hardware, software, AI, public relations, and networking, and include CFO Colette Kress, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations Jay Puri, Executive Vice President of Operations Debora Shoquist, and General Counsel Tim Teter, among others.
This means Nvidia has not set up excessive middle management layers; a large number of key business leaders can report directly to Jensen Huang, reducing information transmission layers and enabling the CEO to directly grasp the progress of each business line.
Jensen Huang himself has explained this management structure design on multiple occasions.
In his view, traditional companies that organize by division or business unit easily form independent management systems and even create information silos. He prefers Nvidia to operate like a complete "Computing Stack," with different departments collaborating around common goals.
Jensen Huang also does not subscribe to the traditional approach to successor development. In his view, companies should continuously transmit knowledge, experience, and decision-making capabilities in daily work, rather than completing succession arrangements by designating someone in advance. In March of this year, Jensen Huang said publicly on the well-known American podcast Lex Fridman Podcast that he does not believe in formal succession plans and has expressed his desire to lead Nvidia for the long term.
"If you're worried about succession planning and you're consumed by that anxiety all day, what should you do? Break everything down. If you truly care about the company's future after you leave, the most important thing is to continuously and as frequently as possible transmit knowledge, information, insights, skills, and experience to the team," Jensen Huang said at the time.
This management approach does allow more executives to participate directly in company decisions, but it also brings another problem: 36 executives all reporting to the CEO does not mean that one of those 36 is already capable of succeeding the CEO.
In addition, members of Jensen Huang's family also hold positions at Nvidia, adding a special dimension to the company's management structure.
Jensen Huang's daughter Madison Huang
According to The Information and other media reports, Jensen Huang's daughter Madison Huang joined Nvidia as an intern in 2020 and has since been promoted progressively.
In March 2026, she was appointed Senior Director of Physical AI Product and Technology Marketing, responsible for marketing Omniverse, robotics, and physical AI-related products. Company-disclosed data shows her total compensation for fiscal year 2026 was approximately $1.23 million.
Jensen Huang's son Spencer Huang
Jensen Huang's son Spencer Huang joined Nvidia in 2022 and currently serves as Director of Robotics Product Management, responsible for robotics-related product lines, with fiscal year 2026 compensation of approximately $1.32 million.
Jensen Huang's son-in-law Nico Caprez
In addition, Jensen Huang's son-in-law Nico Caprez joined Nvidia in early 2024, initially as a corporate development manager. In January 2026, he was promoted to Vice President of Global AI Infrastructure Growth, responsible for Neocloud, data center financing, and large cloud customer relationships.
Compared with Jensen Huang's two children, son-in-law Nico's promotion has attracted more attention.
According to Business Insider, he has participated in multiple large financing and partnership arrangements, and some employees and partners even refer to him as Jensen Huang's "consigliere."
The Information reported that some Nvidia employees believe the company is showing increasingly obvious family-business characteristics, and some speculate that Madison Huang and Nico may be groomed as future management candidates.
Currently, none of the three are listed by Nvidia as company executives, nor is there public evidence that they have been identified as Jensen Huang's successors. Judging from their positions and business responsibilities, they are not yet sufficient to be regarded as candidates capable of fully taking over Nvidia.
Therefore, although Nvidia's management structure is flat enough, it has not solved the CEO succession problem.
If Nvidia Loses Jensen Huang
Although Nvidia has a mature governance structure, it has not publicly disclosed a clear CEO succession arrangement to date.
There is no shortage of precedents from other large companies when it comes to succession planning.
Apple (which announced in advance the transition plan between Tim Cook and John Ternus) and Berkshire Hathaway (which confirmed Greg Abel as successor early on) both demonstrate that clarifying the candidate in advance and setting up a transition period can effectively reduce volatility caused by a change of core leadership.
Even if Jensen Huang suddenly becomes unable to perform his CEO duties, Nvidia's day-to-day operations are unlikely to come to a halt as a result. The company's existing management team can handle the management of their respective businesses. The board can also follow corporate governance procedures to arrange an interim leader and study subsequent personnel plans.
But maintaining business operations does not equal being able to smoothly complete the handover of the top management. Jensen Huang's role at Nvidia has long gone beyond day-to-day business management; he has long led the company's technology strategy and business direction, and is also a key figure connecting chip R&D, the software ecosystem, and global customers.
From GPUs to CUDA and then to AI infrastructure, several key business transformations at Nvidia have been closely tied to Jensen Huang's judgment. He also frequently represents the company in communications with global tech companies, governments, and industry partners. What a successor would need to face, therefore, is not only managing a large tech company, but also how to continue the existing technology roadmap, maintain industry partnerships, and explain the company's next strategic steps to the market.
This issue has also drawn media attention. A Bloomberg report in January 2026 discussed Nvidia's CEO succession issue, and Business Insider previously
