Nvidia's CEO Race: Seven Names to Watch After Huang's Exit

Nvidia is searching for a new chief executive after co-founder Jensen Huang resigned "effective immediately" on Wednesday — just three days after he admitted to an affair and the board opened a probe into whether he was the "target of a foreign intelligence effort."

The board moved fast to stop the bleeding. It named Colette Kress, executive vice president and chief financial officer, as interim CEO while the search for a permanent successor runs. Now analysts, investors and prediction market bettors are scrambling to handicap who gets the top job at the world's most-watched chipmaker.

Who are the leading candidates?

The clearest signal so far: Nvidia has already approached Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas, according to The Financial Times on Wednesday. Sources told the FT it's far from guaranteed Haas will be offered the role — or accept it. He has credibility inside the building, having spent 7 years as vice president and general manager of Nvidia's computing products business unit before running Arm.

The internal favorite is Ian Buck, Nvidia's vice president of hyperscale and high-performance computing. Reuters reports analysts and investors see him as a serious contender, and prediction market users agree — Buck sits at the top of the lists on both Kalshi and Polymarket.

"The permanent job is a different story, though, because Nvidia's edge comes from its technology, and the board would likely want an engineer in the chair," Josh Gilbert, a lead analyst at eToro, told Reuters. "Someone like Ian Buck, who led the software platform that keeps developers tied to Nvidia's chips, is the sort of internal name you'd expect to come up."

Kress herself could keep the chair. Reuters reports analysts and investors also view the interim CEO as a viable long-term pick.

What does this change for Nvidia shareholders?

Possibly the management structure itself. Armina Rosenberg, a cofounder at Minotaur Capital, which owns Nvidia stock, told Reuters the permanent hire won't be quick. "The more realistic route is an interim leader from the long-serving inner circle, possibly as a co-CEO structure: one leader to steady the business and the finances, such as Colette Kress, alongside a product and technology leader, such as Ian Buck," Rosenberg said.

Translation for investors: brace for a stretched transition period, possibly with an unconventional two-person setup at the top.

Who else is in the mix?

• Tim Cook. President Donald Trump endorsed the former Apple CEO in a Truth Social post on Thursday: "NOW THAT Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place - TIM COOK of Apple. A Legend replaces a Legend!" Cook stepped down as Apple CEO in September but remains executive chairman.
• Thomas Kurian. Dan Ives, a partner and senior managing director at Yorkville Ives & Co., named the Google Cloud CEO as a promising candidate in an interview with Fortune. Kurian joined Google in 2019 after stints at Oracle and McKinsey.
• Nikesh Arora. The Palo Alto Networks CEO is drawing speculation too. An Nvidia shareholder told The Economic Times that Arora ranks among his top picks, and Ives has him on his list as well.
• Johny Srouji. Apple's senior vice president of hardware technology is being considered for the role, a person familiar with the matter told Semafor.

The field splits cleanly: engineers like Buck and Srouji who can defend Nvidia's technical moat, operators like Kress and Cook who can steady the business, and outside bets like Haas, Kurian and Arora with proven CEO track records.

Whoever lands the job inherits a company still absorbing the shock of its founder's exit under a cloud — and a board that, by all indications, wants an engineer in the chair.