Author: Tencent Technology

On November 9, after NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's admission of "infidelity," the ensuing question is: can he continue to lead this approximately $4.5 trillion market value company? If not, who will continue to lead NVIDIA?

While countless netizens wait and watch, Trump openly expressed support for Jensen Huang to remain as CEO of NVIDIA: "Jensen Huang is an 'upright person' who has made outstanding contributions to America's development."

Almost simultaneously, NVIDIA’s board established a committee composed of independent directors and hired external independent legal counsel to review the relevant situation.

NVIDIA's board stated that it still trusts Jensen Huang and his management team. Huang himself also supports this investigation and promises to continue fulfilling his CEO responsibilities to ensure normal company operations.

Assuming this incident leads to Huang being unable to perform his duties, who will take over NVIDIA? Can the existing board and management team maintain normal operations of the company?

The Most Powerful 11 People

Since founding NVIDIA in 1993, Jensen Huang has served as CEO, leading the tech company for over 33 years. To the outside world, Jensen Huang is NVIDIA, and NVIDIA is Jensen Huang.

NVIDIA adopts a one-share-one-vote common stock system, without a dual-class share structure, and shareholders enjoy corresponding voting rights according to their shareholdings.

According to NVIDIA's proxy statement released in May 2026, as of March 23 of that year, Jensen Huang beneficially owned approximately 870.6 million shares of the company’s common stock, accounting for about 3.58% of the total shares outstanding.

Subsequent insider trading declaration documents (Form 4) show that Huang's shareholding has slightly changed due to charitable gifts, lock-up releases, and option exercises. Based on the closing price of $186.64 on November 6, the market value of Huang's NVIDIA shares is approximately $162.49 billion.

Image: Details of NVIDIA Form 4 Declaration Changes

In other words, the long-standing "two-in-one" phenomenon seen by the outside world is not unbreakable: although Huang is the founder and long-serving leader, he does not have absolute control over the company through special voting rights.

From a governance perspective, NVIDIA's board of directors, elected by the shareholders' meeting, is the absolute core of corporate governance.

On May 7, the size of NVIDIA's board expanded from 10 to 11 members, with former Goldman Sachs vice chair Suzanne Nora Johnson filling the newly added seat, effective July 13.

Image: List of Current NVIDIA Board Members

Currently, among the 11 members of NVIDIA's board, Jensen Huang is the only non-independent director, while the other 10 are independent directors. The board has established specialized institutions such as the audit committee, nomination and governance committee, and compensation committee, responsible for financial supervision, director nominations, corporate governance, and executive compensation.

The majority of independent directors means that major governance matters of the company are not solely decided by Jensen Huang; this independent investigation is an example.

According to the arrangements announced by the company, the investigation is led by a committee composed of independent directors, and external legal consultants are involved. Given that the investigation involves the CEO himself, having independent directors lead the review helps avoid Huang's direct involvement in the investigative decisions, maintaining the independence of the investigation.

Image: Polymarket Forecast of Jensen Huang's Departure Probability Trend

Data from prediction platform Polymarket shows that the probability of "Jensen Huang announcing his resignation or removal before December 31" saw significant fluctuations, exceeding 75% at one point, currently remaining around 17%.

Although the prediction market is focused on the end of the year, NVIDIA's board has not disclosed a specific timeline for the investigation and resolutions.

For the outside world and investors, what is more critical than the predicted time points are the two upcoming information disclosure windows: one is NVIDIA's earnings report meeting on November 17 at Eastern Time, where the management is bound to face intense questioning from analysts and the market; the other is the latest developments regarding the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust lawsuit against NVIDIA on November 18. These two time points may become key moments revealing the subsequent direction.

Jensen Huang Has No Successor

Image: NVIDIA's Executive Team Reporting Directly to Jensen Huang

If the board is responsible for supervision and major decisions, then the core of NVIDIA's daily operations is a large executive team managed directly by Jensen Huang. NVIDIA's management structure has a very distinctive feature: it is highly flat.

According to a Bloomberg report in January this year, Jensen Huang did not establish a multi-layer management system in the traditional fashion of large enterprises. Media such as Business Insider reported that the number of executives reporting directly to Huang once reached around 55, but subsequently this list dropped to about 36.

These executives are distributed across strategic, hardware, software, AI, public relations, networking, and other fields, including core members such as CFO Colette Kress and Global Field Operations Executive Vice President Jay Puri.

This means that NVIDIA does not have too many intermediate management layers, allowing many key business leaders to report directly to Jensen Huang, reducing information transmission levels and enabling the CEO to directly grasp the progress of various business lines.

Jensen Huang has repeatedly explained this management structure design. In his view, traditional companies organized by divisions or business units tend to form independent management systems from one another, even leading to information silos. He prefers NVIDIA to operate like a complete "Computing Stack," where all levels closely collaborate.

Huang also does not agree with the traditional method of succession planning. In his view, companies should continuously pass on knowledge, experience, and decision-making ability in daily work rather than through the prior designation of a specific person to complete succession plans. In March of this year, Huang discussed this topic in detail while guesting on the well-known American podcast Lex Fridman.

"If you are worried about the succession plan and are constantly haunted by this anxiety, what should you do? Break everything down. If you truly care about the future of the company after you leave, the most important thing is to frequently and continuously pass knowledge, information, insights, skills, and experience to the team as much as possible," Huang stated at the time.

This management approach indeed allows more executives to directly participate in company decision-making, but it also raises another issue: 36 executives reporting to the CEO does not mean that one among them is already capable of succeeding the CEO.

Moreover, family members of Jensen Huang also hold positions at NVIDIA, adding a special shade to the company's management structure.

Image: Huang Renxuan's Daughter Huang Minshan

According to The Information and other media reports, Huang's daughter, Huang Minshan, joined NVIDIA in 2020 as an intern and gradually moved up.

In March 2026, she was appointed as Senior Director of Physical AI Product and Technology Marketing, responsible for marketing related to Omniverse, robotics, and physical AI products. Company disclosures show that her total compensation for the 2026 fiscal year was about $1.23 million.

Image: Huang Renxuan's Son Huang Shengbin

Huang's son, Huang Shengbin, joined NVIDIA in 2022 and currently serves as Director of Robotics Product Management, responsible for the robotics product line, with compensation for the 2026 fiscal year of approximately $1.32 million.

Image: Huang Renxuan's Son-in-law Nico Caprez

Additionally, Huang's son-in-law Nico Caprez joined NVIDIA in early 2024, initially as corporate development manager. In January 2026, he was promoted to Vice President of Global AI Infrastructure Growth, responsible for Neocloud, data center financing, and large cloud transactions.

Compared to Huang's two children, the position elevation of son-in-law Nico has drawn more attention. According to Business Insider, he has been involved in several large financing and collaboration arrangements, with some employees and partners even referring to him as Huang's "consigliere."

The Information reported that some NVIDIA employees believe the company is exhibiting increasingly clear traits of a family business, and there is speculation that Huang Minshan and Nico may be groomed as future management candidates.

Currently, the three aforementioned individuals are not listed as company executives by NVIDIA, and there is no public evidence indicating that they have been identified as successors to Huang. From the perspective of their positions and business roles, they are currently not sufficient to be seen as candidates who could fully take over NVIDIA. Thus, while NVIDIA's management structure is sufficiently flat, it has not resolved the issue of a CEO successor.

If We Lose Jensen Huang

Image: NVIDIA’s Corporate Governance Structure Diagram

Although NVIDIA has a mature governance structure, it has yet to publicly clarify a specific CEO succession plan. In terms of successor planning, there are plenty of precedents to reference from other large companies.

Apple (having announced the transition plan between Tim Cook and John Ternus early) and Berkshire Hathaway (having confirmed Greg Abel’s succession early) both indicate that clearly identifying successors and establishing a transitional period in advance can effectively reduce the fluctuations brought about by the replacement of core leaders.

Even if Jensen Huang suddenly cannot fulfill his CEO duties, it is unlikely that NVIDIA’s daily operations would come to a halt. The existing management team can undertake the management work of their respective businesses. The board can also arrange for an interim leader and research subsequent personnel solutions following corporate governance procedures.

However, maintaining business operations does not equate to smoothly completing the transition of the top management. Huang's role at NVIDIA has long exceeded daily operational management; he has been leading the company's technological strategy and business direction for a long time, and he is also a key figure connecting chip development, software ecosystems, and global customers.

From GPUs to CUDA, to AI infrastructure, several key business transformations at NVIDIA have been closely related to Huang's judgments. He frequently represents the company in communications with global technology companies, governments, and industry partners. Therefore, successors will face not only the management of a large technology company but also how to maintain this vast ecosystem.

This issue has also attracted media attention. A Bloomberg report in January 2026 discussed the succession issue for NVIDIA's CEO, while Business Insider previously pointed out that the company does not yet have a clearly defined and widely recognized potential successor. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives stated, "Whoever takes over will face an extremely daunting challenge. Jensen Huang is not only the CEO at NVIDIA; he is the embodiment of the company."

These discussions point to the same question: NVIDIA has a management team capable of supporting daily operations, but currently there is no public and clear candidate who can be seen as Jensen Huang’s complete successor.

Jensen Huang is still at the helm, and the board has clearly expressed its confidence in him. However, as NVIDIA's position in the global AI industry continues to rise, CEO succession is not just an internal personnel arrangement, but also relates to the market's assessment of its long-term strategic continuity. For NVIDIA, how to ensure the company's development does not become overly reliant on a single core leader will be a governance issue that must be faced sooner or later.