Colette Kress steps in as interim CEO after Huang’s 33 years
Jensen Huang has resigned as chief executive of Nvidia, and Stephen Witt — the journalist who wrote the biography “The Thinking Machine” — called the departure a shocking downfall when NPR host A Martínez asked him about the news on Nov. 12.
“It’s a shocking downfall for the man who, until quite recently, had a claim to be the most powerful guy in tech, one of the most powerful people alive, actually, because of his influence with Trump and his connections inside China and all over the world,” Witt said. “It’s really shocking. It’s a tale of hubris.”
Witt, who wrote a biography of Huang, said the pressure on Huang had mounted around his personal conduct. He said Huang had been “carrying on quite openly, it seems, with one of his employees” and “had this woman across the seas in China,” and added that “perhaps there are more.” Witt said he believed Huang ultimately concluded “that there was no way that he could continue at the company with so much pressure and attention on him.”
Martínez asked whether Huang was the type who just kind of doesn’t listen to anyone else and marches to the beat of his own drum. “That’s exactly the type that he is,” Witt replied. “He is not a person who really brooks much disagreement. He’s not a person who really listens to anyone else.” Witt said that as Huang grew more powerful, “the hubris set in, the overconfidence, the classic, maybe masculine overconfidence that I’m untouchable, that no one can touch me and no one can get me. But that’s never true - not for anyone.”
On whether Huang left on his own or under pressure from Nvidia’s board, Witt said it was hard to say. “It’s hard for me to imagine Jensen not fighting his way to the end,” he said. “So perhaps it just got to a point where it’s absolutely untenable.” Witt added that if Huang is leaving now, “it reached a point with the board where it was just absolutely untenable and he couldn’t move forward.”
Witt framed the resignation as the end of a tenure with no planned handoff. “He has been the CEO of this company for 33 years, and he was prepared to do it for another 33. He never wanted to let go. There’s no successor. He never cultivated a second-in-command or someone to replace him,” Witt said. “I don’t think he had any plan to ever exit this company - or at least not for a long time.”
Colette Kress, Nvidia’s chief financial officer, is serving as interim CEO. Witt endorsed her in the short term. “She’s a great CFO. She’s a good person to lead the company in the interim,” he said.
Witt said the permanent job sets a harder test. “You can’t just get a classic MBA or a person who’s good with business to run this company. You need a world-class computer scientist,” he said, noting that Huang is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. The next CEO would have to understand computing “from the scale of the microchip, from the scale of the transistor, all the way up to the data center” and also be “great at business,” Witt said. “That combination is really rare. Those people are hard to find.”
Martínez said such a rare candidate “probably has their own company that they are running.” “Yeah, they probably do,” Witt replied. Nvidia may have to look outside the company at other chief executives, Witt said, “or maybe find someone within who can step up to the challenge.”