Good morning. And on the 15th day, Nvidia’s board rested.
Nvidia shares fell by as much as 10% Thursday after cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang resigned. (CFO Colette Kress will step into the job on an interim basis.) For those keeping score at home, the value of the Silicon Valley chipmaker has fallen by almost a quarter—that is, $1.7 trillion—in the last 30 days. And the hits keep on comin’.
Just a day after news broke that Huang had an intimate relationship with employee Kimberly Powell (who, as it happens, I interviewed at this year’s Fortune Brainstorm Tech), Reuters reported that the Nvidia chief had one with an unnamed second employee—nevermind the original reported affair with the Megaspeed executive accused of being a Chinese spy.
Who will lead Nvidia next? Better yet, who would want to lead Nvidia next, given Huang’s grip—cultural, undoubtedly, but also financial, in that he remains its largest individual shareholder—over the company? The way Dara Khosrowshahi gently stepped into Uber’s top job in the wake of cofounder Travis Kalanick’s 2017 flameout comes to mind, though that was for a pre-IPO tech unicorn with systemic issues and this is for a Fortune 500 tech colossus with one big one.
“This company has to change,” Khosrowshahi told a beleaguered Uber in his first all-hands meeting nine years ago. “What got us here is not what’s going to get us to the next level.” Wise words for whoever comes next in Santa Clara.
More below. Have a wonderful weekend. —Andrew Nusca
Thoughts? Suggestions? Hot tip? Drop me a line.
THE BIG STORY
Harvey Jones may lead the search for the next Nvidia CEO. Did he enable the current crisis?
In the wake of former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s stunning departure from the company, employees received an email from someone most of them had probably never heard of before, even though he’d been affiliated with the company for decades.
His name is Harvey Jones, and he was writing to tell them that he’d just been appointed the company’s first-ever Chair of the Board. In the note, Jones tried to reassure employees no doubt left shaken by the past weeks’ revelations and the sudden departure of CEO Jensen Huang, the cofounder who had been synonymous with its success.
A sense of calm and confidence is something Jones is known for, according to two longtime friends and former coworkers. Although Jones, 73, may not be a household name, he has worked in the technology industry, and in semiconductors, for over 30 years, according to his biography on the Nvidia website.
He founded two companies, served as CEO of another, and since 2004 has been managing partner of investment firm Square Wave Ventures. He’s been on Nvidia’s board since 1993, the year Huang founded the company.
Jones comes from a successful Connecticut family—his full name is Harvey Jones III—with an “old-school, conservative” way about him, Penny Herscher, who has known Jones since 1984 and used to work for him, tells Fortune. “I’m sure he’s right now figuring out the right strategy and steps going forward,” she says. “He’s always looking around corners.”
Jones’ experience and board tenure also begs the question of how he failed to identify the enormous reputational risk of Huang’s affairs.
“Jones may be the right person to steady the ship, but his longevity is both his greatest qualification and the strongest reason to scrutinize his leadership,” Jonathan Tower, managing partner at the VC firm Catapult, tells Fortune. “The board cannot simply present itself as the solution without examining its role in creating the problem.”
Case in point: Huang’s affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, was reportedly known inside the company, and appears to violate its code of conduct. The board promises to promptly investigate all reports of misconduct. So what happened?
Whatever the answer, Jones will likely lead the process to select Nvidia’s next CEO. The search may take months. According to Herscher, all signs point to Jones being an effective recruiter, with a wide net of contacts in the industry. That’s good news if shareholders want Nvidia to catch a very big fish for its next CEO. —Emily Forlini
THE BLIND BOX
“[This] is a stress test for the AI boom.”
THE RUNDOWN
—A Microsoft 365 outage derails the workday for millions of people in the Americas.
—A SpaceX-Tesla merger could be announced as soon as next month.
—Nebius shares drop 16% after the neocloud beats Q3 revenue expectations but projects increased capex and a weak outlook.
—Google and Samsung open preorders for their $400 Android XR smart glasses with Warby Parker or Gentle Monster frames.
—Cerebras shares leap 15% after it beats Q3 revenue expectations and lifts future guidance.
—Kalshi may fundraise again, this time at a $65 billion valuation.
Plus:
—What Jensen’s exit means for neoclouds.
—What Nvidia’s stumbles mean for an Anthropic IPO.
—How a flat org structure hampered Nvidia’s succession planning.
—Huang agrees to testify before Congress in the next two weeks.
—Should Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick exit? Senior White House officials discuss.
THE PARTING SHOT
This week’s news cycle about Nvidia rapidly erased an important question raised by last week’s U.S. election results: What will tech CEOs do now that elected officials are more likely to be Democrats than Republicans? (Palantir CEO Alex Karp has already declared himself a “progressive,” after all.) Here’s someone’s retro fever dream version.