Nvidia After Jensen Huang: $89 Billion Quarter Meets a Leadership Vacuum

Nvidia just posted $89 billion in data center revenue for its second fiscal quarter of 2027 — up 117% year on year — and simultaneously lost the founder who built the company. Jensen Huang is stepping down as chief executive and leaving the board after 33 years at the helm, according to Ion Jauregui, analyst at ActivTrades. Colette Kress, chief financial officer since 2013, takes over as interim CEO.

That's the tension investors now have to price: a business still compounding at triple-digit rates, and a leadership transition with no clear endpoint.

Who is actually in charge?

Kress has been at Nvidia since 2013 and has been directly involved in its financial expansion, Jauregui notes. She could become a permanent solution if she manages to guarantee strategic continuity. But the board has confirmed it will look at both internal and external candidates, so nothing is settled.

Two outside names have already surfaced, though neither constitutes a real candidacy. Elon Musk replied that it would be "an honor" to hire Huang, after a user on X suggested bringing him into his business circle — no formal offer is known. Donald Trump publicly proposed Tim Cook, former chief executive of Apple, as a replacement. Jauregui is explicit that this suggestion implies neither a candidacy nor a board decision.

Beyond the names, Nvidia loses its main strategic and commercial figurehead. The market, Jauregui writes, will have to assess whether the company's competitive advantage depends on a consolidated corporate structure or, to a greater extent, on Huang's personal leadership.

What do the fundamentals say?

The latest numbers tell a very different story from the corporate uncertainty. Alongside the $89 billion in data center revenue — a figure that has more than doubled in a year — Nvidia guided for third-quarter total revenue of $108 billion with a gross margin of 74%. For context, a 74% gross margin means Nvidia keeps roughly three-quarters of every sales dollar after production costs, a level most semiconductor makers never approach.

The engine is still running. But high expectations and dependence on AI infrastructure investment keep the bar very high. Jauregui flags three compounding risks: the succession itself, competition, and trade restrictions with China — all set against a demanding valuation.

Where is the stock trading?

The chart has deteriorated faster than the business. From its highs of $243, Nvidia has lost its 50-, 100- and 200-session exponential moving averages, which now sit between $204 and $215. The RSI reads 26 points, reflecting extreme oversold conditions, while the MACD retains its bearish bias.

The level map, per ActivTrades:

• First support: $148.80
• Further supports: $140 and $123
• First upside trigger: recovering $170–171, the first step toward easing selling pressure
• Higher resistance: $190, then the $204–215 moving-average zone

What does this change for investors?

Nvidia maintains an enormously fast-growing business but faces a management transition that introduces a risk that is difficult to quantify, Jauregui concludes. The results due November 17 will be Kress's first test — her first chance to show the numbers, and the strategy, don't depend on one man.

Until then, the recovery of the $170–171 zone is the key reference for assessing whether the stock-market punishment is starting to lose intensity. Watch that level before the earnings date; it will tell you more than the CEO headlines do.