Nvidia must turn an important page in its history. On Thursday, the group announced the immediate departure of its co-founder, Jensen Huang, who leaves both the general management, the presid
Nvidia must turn an important page in its history. On Thursday, the group announced the immediate departure of its co-founder, Jensen Huang, who leaves both the general management, the presidency, and his seat on the board of directors. Colette Kress takes over temporarily, while Harvey C. Jones becomes the first chairman of the company’s board in its history. Beyond the change of leaders, this decision raises a much broader question: can Nvidia maintain its lead without the one who shaped its strategy for 33 years?
The markets did not wait for the official announcement to react. Nvidia already lost 430 billion dollars in market capitalization on November 9 and 10, before shedding an additional 182 billion during Thursday’s session.
On its side, the official statement is reassuring. The company promises that “operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap will continue uninterrupted.” A typical statement during a leadership change. The question remains whether reality will follow the rhetoric so easily.
Because Jensen Huang was not content to just lead Nvidia. For over three decades, he oversaw major technological directions, set the pace for new architectures, and maintained direct relationships with the main chip and computing capacity buyers.
In other words, he did not just manage a company: he was also the primary convergence point. Colette Kress knows the group’s finances perfectly, but she will now have to make strategic decisions that go beyond her usual role. And leadership experience unfortunately cannot be passed on with the office keys.
This dependence on a central figure represents a real risk for Nvidia. ClearBridge identifies two main challenges: the risk related to the technological roadmap and that related to its execution. The first is relatively clear, since the company plans its innovations years in advance. The second is more delicate: it requires coordinating teams, suppliers and clients to meet deadlines.
The stock now trades around 12 times its projected earnings, its lowest multiple since 2012. An additional signal of investors’ caution.
Another detail from the statement deserves attention: Harvey C. Jones becomes the first chairman of Nvidia’s board of directors. Until now, the company had never separated this role from that of CEO.
Jones, however, knows the company very well. A board member since 1993, even before Nvidia’s IPO, he also led Synopsys and chairs the audit and nomination committees. The group is thus betting on a historic director rather than an external personality to oversee this transition.
The board’s composition also provides some indications. It has eleven members, ten of whom are considered independent. This structure allows directors to make important decisions, especially concerning general management. However, knowing how to replace a boss does not automatically mean knowing how to preserve their strategic vision.
Colette Kress’s situation also raises some questions. By temporarily combining the roles of CFO and CEO, she will have to manage operations while continuing to oversee finances. A demanding task, especially for a company of this size.
The schedule leaves her no respite. Nvidia must publish its third-quarter 2027 results on November 17, just five days after the announcement. She will therefore have to present figures prepared under the previous management while reassuring investors about the new organization.
The group’s future remains open. However, three main developments can be outlined.
First scenario: continuity. Nvidia continues its roadmap without major disruption, retains its major clients, and chooses a successor from within its own ranks. The market reaction hints at this possibility: after opening down 13% on Thursday, the stock ended the session down 4.34%. Some investors preferred to maintain their positions rather than succumb to panic.
Second scenario: a gradual loss of strategic coherence. The future leader will have to take command of a group whose strength relies on the integration of hardware, software, and network infrastructures. This organization requires constant trade-offs and a solid technical vision. An excellent manager can keep the machine running, but that does not guarantee he will steer it in a new direction.
Third scenario: an erosion of Nvidia’s dominance. Major chip buyers are already looking to diversify their suppliers. On Thursday, AMD and Broadcom rose, while Micron, Marvell, Intel and Dell declined. These moves show that investors do not uniformly penalize the entire technology sector.
If clients accelerate their diversification, Nvidia could gradually lose market share. Not necessarily following a spectacular event, but rather through a series of contracts won by competitors.
For now, none of these scenarios prevails. The board has promised an open search internally and externally, without announcing a precise timeline.
One thing is certain: the more than 1,000 publicly traded U.S. funds holding Nvidia shares, as well as investors exposed to the 7.8% of the S&P 500 represented by the group, will closely follow this transition.
Because when the company that provides much of the artificial intelligence infrastructure changes pilots, the entire industry watches the dashboard.
