The Zhitong Finance App learned that Nvidia (NVDA.US) announced on Thursday that the company's co-founder and CEO Huang Renxun will resign as CEO and withdraw from the board of directors. The company's chief financial officer, Colette Kress (Colette Kress), will be the interim CEO until an official successor is found. Meanwhile, Nvidia appointed Harvey Jones, the former CEO of SNPS.US (SNPS.US) and current company director, as chairman. This is the first time since Nvidia was founded.
Affected by this news, Nvidia's stock price fell sharply by 12% before the market on Thursday, and dragged down the overall performance of US stocks. As one of the technology companies with the highest market capitalization in the world, Nvidia currently has a market capitalization of around $4 trillion. Hwang In-hoon's departure not only made the future development of this AI chip giant face major uncertainty, but may also have a profound impact on the entire AI industry chain.
Huang Renxun, 63, co-founded Nvidia in 1993. Currently, he still holds about 3.61% of the company's shares and is the fourth largest shareholder of Nvidia. Under his leadership, Nvidia has gradually grown from a chip manufacturer famous for gaming graphics cards to a leading company in the global AI computing field, and has become one of the biggest beneficiaries of this round of artificial intelligence investment boom.
Recently, however, disputes over Hwang In-hoon's personal actions have continued to ferment, and the pressure on the company's board of directors has continued to increase. Previously, Nvidia's board of directors had initiated an investigation led by an independent director with the participation of external legal advisers, and announced on Tuesday the hiring of well-known law firms Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to assist in related work. At the time, the board of directors still expressed trust in Hwang In-hoon, but as the situation developed further, the company finally announced management adjustments.
Investors are currently most concerned about whether Nvidia can maintain its leading position in the AI chip field and successfully implement the established product roadmap and long-term growth strategy after losing Hwang In-hoon.
Michael Feldman, portfolio manager at ClearBridge Investments, said that the risk Nvidia faces is not a sudden loss of direction in technology development because the company's product roadmap for the next few years is relatively clear, and the real risk lies in the ability to execute.
Feldman pointed out that Hwang In-hoon has always been the core coordinator of an extremely complex industrial system. In the context of AI infrastructure construction facing many supply bottlenecks, this coordination ability itself is a competitive advantage for Nvidia.
In recent years, Nvidia has not only obtained huge revenue through the sale of AI chips, but has also invested growing cash into cloud computing service providers, supply chain companies, and the world's leading AI R&D institutions, further consolidating its central position in the AI industry ecosystem. Hwang In-hoon's departure may cause the coordination and operation of this huge ecosystem to face new challenges.
At the same time, Nvidia's successor arrangement has also become the focus of attention on Wall Street. Hwang In-hoon has long adopted a relatively flat management model and has about 60 executives reporting directly to him, but no clear succession plans have been disclosed until now.
Kress, who took over as interim CEO, has been Nvidia's chief financial officer for a long time and is one of Wall Street's most recognized finance executives in the technology industry. Although its rich management experience is expected to help the company maintain stable operations in the short term, the market will still pay attention to when Nvidia determines an official successor and whether the new CEO can continue the product innovation and strategic layout led by Hwang In-hoon.
Stifel analyst Ruben Roy said that for Nvidia's stock price, the next most important thing is not whether management changes, but how the company will implement this transition arrangement.
Analysts believe that whether Nvidia ultimately chooses an internal executive to take over or a new CEO is brought in from outside, its valuation may be suppressed in the short term until the company's long-term strategic direction and leadership arrangements are further clarified. If the interim CEO's term lasts for a long time, it may further increase investors' uncertainty about the company's future development.
Notably, Hwang In-hoon's departure comes at a time when investment sentiment in the AI sector is weakening. Recently, tech giants' expanding AI capital expenditure, rapidly increasing cash consumption, and rising debt size have raised market concerns about the return on AI investment.
As a core enterprise in the global AI industry chain, Nvidia's current management changes may further exacerbate market fluctuations. As the company is about to release its quarterly earnings report on November 17, in addition to focusing on AI chip demand, profit growth, and future performance guidance, investors will also pay close attention to management transition arrangements and whether the company can continue to maintain its technical advantages and growth momentum without the founder's leadership.