‘Stay, with less’: Why Nvidia’s board may rein in Jensen Huang rather than fire him

Résumé détaillé

Nvidia’s board backed Jensen Huang before its probe finished. Experts say directors serving since 1993 may be too close to judge him.

Jensen Huang has acknowledged an affair with Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive suspected of being a Chinese spy. On Sunday, the same day it opened an independent investigation, Nvidia’s board said it had confidence in its CEO.

Investors were less sure. Nvidia shares fell as much as 8.8% on Monday and closed down about 4.3%, wiping roughly $190 billion off the market value of a company that ranked as the most valuable on the 2026 Fortune 500.

For most CEOs, that sounds like the kind of week that ends with a resignation letter. But at Nvidia, even removing the CEO could be complicated.

“In most cases of scandal at major corporations, the CEO is either replaced or put on leave while investigations are carried out and appropriate responses decided,” Jo-Ellen Pozner, an associate professor of management at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, told Fortune.

Nvidia’s board faces two problems. It may be reluctant to force out the man who built the company, and even if it wanted to, there is no obvious successor.

“I don’t expect a ‘stay or go’ decision. It will be more like a ‘stay, with less,’” Jason Schloetzer, an associate professor of accounting at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, told Fortune.

Schloetzer said the board could appoint a clear second-in-command, communicate more openly about succession planning, and reshuffle board seats to signal stronger oversight. Huang would remain CEO, but under closer supervision

At a typical large corporation, the board oversees the CEO and succession planning, while layers of senior management provide potential replacements. Nvidia operates differently.

Huang has built an unusually flat management structure, with dozens of direct reports and few layers of hierarchy. Pozner calls it “an extremely unusual organizational structure.” It has kept Huang at the center of the company since its founding in 1993.

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