Key facts
- Nvidia's board is investigating whether CEO Jensen Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort, per the report.
- Nvidia said Huang is committed to leading the company as CEO without interruption.
- Nvidia has not publicly designated a number two, and Huang keeps roughly 60 direct reports.
- DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria said CFO Colette Kress could serve as interim CEO.
- Ian Buck, who helped develop CUDA, heads Nvidia's data center and computing businesses.
- Brad Gastwirth of Circular Technology said Huang owns about 3.6% of Nvidia.
Nvidia's board is investigating whether CEO Jensen Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort, Business Insider reported on November 9, 2026, the same week Huang admitted to having an affair. Nvidia said in a statement on Sunday that "Jensen is committed to continuing to lead Nvidia as CEO without interruption." The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment for the story.
The report said Nvidia has not publicly designated a number two and that Huang keeps an unusually flat leadership structure with roughly 60 direct reports. Daniel Newman, CEO of The Futurum Group, said that structure means "nobody has been groomed, tested, or publicly positioned as the heir."
Analysts and former employees named possible successors. Gil Luria of DA Davidson said chief financial officer Colette Kress, who has worked at Nvidia for 13 years after finance roles at Cisco and Microsoft, could take over as interim CEO. Ian Buck, a vice president who helped develop the CUDA chip software and heads Nvidia's data center and computing businesses, was cited as a longer-term option; he has worked at Nvidia for 22 years. One former employee said Madison Huang, a senior director of product marketing for physical AI and Huang's daughter, has been asserting greater authority across Nvidia's businesses. Huang's son Spencer also works at Nvidia.
Brad Gastwirth, global head of research at Circular Technology, said Huang owns about 3.6% of Nvidia and would likely "have considerable input into succession unless the investigation uncovers serious wrongdoing." He said losing Huang "would be one of the worst things that could happen to Nvidia." Observers have also floated Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian and Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman.