Jensen Huang Resigns, CFO Serves as Interim CEO
AI chip giant NVIDIA announced on the 12th that Jensen Huang has resigned as company president, CEO and board member. Earlier, on the 8th of this month, he issued a statement admitting to extramarital affairs with a Chinese businesswoman suspected of being a communist spy, former Megaspeed executive Huang Le, and NVIDIA healthcare vice president Powell. NVIDIA is currently led by interim CEO CFO Colette Kress, and the board has launched a selection process for a permanent CEO, considering both internal and external candidates. With Jensen Huang leaving his leadership role, attention has turned to the future of his daughter Huang Minshan, son Huang Shengbin and son-in-law Caprez, who work at NVIDIA.
Children Without Semiconductor Backgrounds Hold Key Robotics Posts
According to reports cited by Israeli media, Huang Minshan earlier studied catering and baking, and worked as a chef in New York and San Francisco, before joining luxury group LVMH and later earning an MBA from London Business School. She joined NVIDIA in 2020 as an intern, was gradually promoted to manager, and now serves as senior director of embodied AI product marketing. Huang Shengbin previously ran a cocktail bar in Taiwan and earned a master's degree in technology management-related studies from New York University, joining NVIDIA in 2022 and now serving as director of robotics product management. Both now work in departments related to robotics, an area NVIDIA has actively expanded in recent years, though their early education and career paths were not in semiconductors, artificial intelligence or robotics.
Son-in-law Promoted to Vice President in Less Than Two Years, Skipping a Level
Jensen Huang's son-in-law Caprez was previously a member of the Swiss national alpine ski team and worked at Boston Consulting Group, meeting Huang Minshan while studying at London Business School. He joined NVIDIA in 2024 and was promoted in January this year to vice president of global AI infrastructure growth, skipping the senior director level, and married Huang Minshan in September this year. His business covers data centers, as well as new cloud providers specializing in AI training and inference services, and he has pushed credit guarantee and loan programs using NVIDIA GPUs as collateral. Despite attention over his rapid promotion, some business partners recognize his ability to grasp the core of complex issues and defuse tension at the right time.
Special Power Relations Under Flat Management
Reports analyze that NVIDIA has long adopted a highly flat management model, with about 60 executives reporting directly to the CEO, but with Huang family members successively holding key posts and able to communicate directly with Jensen Huang, a special power relationship has emerged inside the company. Not only have Huang family members gained increased voice and influence in meetings, but clients and suppliers have bypassed other employees to build relationships directly with Huang family members, causing internal dissatisfaction, with some employees believing Jensen Huang is paving the way for his daughter and son-in-law to succeed him. Jensen Huang previously said in an interview that he did not want his daughter to succeed him as CEO, but if his children had such ambitions, they would have to earn it on their own. When facing nepotism questions at an employee town hall last year, he also defended senior executives' children, saying they were even better than their parents, and stressed that the next CEO must go through a formal appointment process, and no one should take the position for granted.