Nvidia approached Arm CEO Rene Haas to succeed Jensen Huang, report says

Detailed summary

Nvidia has reportedly approached Arm CEO Rene Haas as a potential successor to Jensen Huang, according to the Financial Times. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Nvidia’s board has approached British chipmaker Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas in its search for a potential successor to Jensen Huang, the Financial Times reported on Nov 13, citing people familiar with the matter.

Huang stepped down on Nov 12 after revelations of extramarital affairs, including one involving a suspected Chinese spy, plunging the chipmaker into crisis and sending shockwaves across an AI industry he helped bankroll.

Haas’ name has been making the rounds among analysts since Huang’s exit. He spent seven formative years at Nvidia, rising to vice-president and general manager of its computing products business, before joining Arm in 2013.

Nvidia’s board said it was in the process of selecting a search firm for the CEO role and had not formally engaged any potential candidates.

“Any speculation regarding individual candidates, whether internal or external, is premature,” the board said in a statement.

Prior to Huang’s resignation, a longtime Nvidia engineer had urged the board in an internal post to consider employee sentiment before taking any action, Wired reported late on Nov 12.

The post has since drawn more than 1,600 comments, with several urging the board to find a way to bring Huang back, the technology news platform said, citing internal correspondence it reviewed. Nvidia has about 42,000 employees worldwide.

Billionaire Elon Musk separately said on X that a petition was underway to reinstate Huang and that he would sign it. It was not immediately clear whether Musk was referring to the internal effort reported by Wired.

Nvidia declined to comment on the Wired report as well as Musk’s post, while Arm also declined to comment. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Straits Times Business. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.