Nvidia's Israel Bet Wobbles as Jensen Huang Exit Opens Doors

Nvidia paid $6.9 billion for Israel's Mellanox in 2019 — and now the whole country is asking what happens to that bet without Jensen Huang driving it.

Huang, Nvidia's former CEO, has resigned, and Israel — the country he called Nvidia's "second home" in 2023 — is watching closely. The chipmaker's weight in the Israeli economy cuts both ways: Nvidia has provided a major boost to the country's economic forecasts in recent years, and it employs 6,000 locals today.

Nvidia isn't alone there. Intel, Microsoft and many homegrown startups also run a sizable share of their R&D in Israel. But Nvidia's stronghold on AI — its GPUs are central to training LLMs and running them — makes the leadership crisis a uniquely Israeli question. Many in the country are wondering how deep the reshuffle will go.

How deep does Nvidia's Israeli footprint run?

Huang drove the Mellanox acquisition personally and used the Israeli chipmaker as the base for Nvidia's largest R&D facility outside the U.S. The company also planned a multibillion-dollar campus in northern Israel.

"Jensen brought Nvidia to Israel with the acquisition of Mellanox, so there is a strong positive sentiment towards Nvidia and Jensen in Israel's tech community," Pavel Gurvich, a repeat Israeli cybersecurity entrepreneur, told TechCrunch.

The stakes are straightforward. Beyond the 6,000 jobs, the open question is whether Nvidia stays as committed to Israel with someone else at the helm. Huang's line of succession is being watched just as closely by those who want that commitment to continue as by those who don't.

The second camp may be in for disappointment. In a 2023 interview now recirculating on X, interim CEO Colette Kress said that as Nvidia's CFO, she typically started her day "with Israel meetings, and only then continue[d] to California."

Kress may not hold the job long-term. Among the many names floated as her eventual replacement are two Israelis: Apple's Johny Srouji and Nvidia's own Michael Kagan — though neither sits at the top of what remains a tentative list.

Whoever wins the job will likely command less grip on Nvidia — and on the tech industry as a whole — than Huang did. Investors don't expect that to erode demand for Nvidia's products.

What does the opening mean for competitors?

Yanai Oron, a general partner at Vertex Ventures Israel, sees the opportunity with clear eyes.

"Slower decisions at Nvidia could give competitors an opening, but if that uncertainty also slows AI spending, they could end up with a bigger share of a smaller opportunity," Oron said.

That's the double-edged math. Nvidia has accounted for a vast share of global AI industry spending. Under Huang, the company deployed its cash reserves aggressively across the spectrum — investing in outside companies and in its own next-generation chips.

An empire built by one architect may not fall with his ouster. But it now looks less likely to become a full-on monopoly.

"[Huang's] departure doesn't dismantle Nvidia's technology or ecosystem, but it could give competitors more room to shape what comes next," said Adi Levanon, a founder and managing partner at Selah Ventures.

Where is the venture money going?

Companies worldwide are deploying increasingly demanding AI agents into their workflows. That shift has pulled real interest — and some venture capital — toward developers of AI-specific chips and inference software that could compete with Nvidia's.

Levanon cautions that a leadership change alone doesn't hand anyone the business. "These challengers now have a window to prove a different approach delivers better economics; a leadership change alone won't win them the business," she said.

The takeaway is plain: Nvidia's Israeli base of 6,000 employees looks secure for now, but the window for AI chip and inference challengers — in Israel and beyond — has cracked open, and proving better economics, not waiting on Nvidia's stumbles, is what will win the business.