New Delhi [India], November 13 : Nvidia can continue to thrive despite the departure of its long-time chief executive Jensen Huang, with two senior technology executives emerging as potential successors, according to Tae Kim, author of ‘The Nvidia Way’, who believes the company's future does not depend solely on its iconic leader.
In a post titled "Jensen Huang Resigns. Who Should Replace Him to Keep Nvidia Successful?", published on his Substack newsletter Key Context on November 12, Kim identified Arm CEO Rene Haas and Nvidia Vice President Ian Buck as the two strongest candidates to lead the chipmaking giant into its next chapter.
Kim's assessment comes amid concerns over Nvidia's leadership transition and the potential implications of Huang's departure for the company's business and its dominant position in the artificial intelligence industry.
"I don’t believe Nvidia’s story is over. The company has a deep bench of talent that does the work and I now believe it can continue to thrive under a new CEO. But it has to be the right leader. In my view, there are only two choices," Kim wrote.
Kim's first choice is Rene Haas, the chief executive of Arm, whom he described as an executive with a strong understanding of technology, business management experience and the ability to represent the company publicly.
Highlighting Haas's previous association with Nvidia, Kim said he was familiar to the company's senior leadership and had earned considerable respect among former colleagues.
"He has proven very successful outside Nvidia with a strong grasp of technology, a public-facing CEO skill set, and well-regarded business management experience," Kim wrote, adding that he had heard former Nvidia employees "loved working for him".
Kim described Haas as "a great choice" to take over the leadership of Nvidia, pointing to his experience both within and outside the company.
The second candidate identified by Kim is Ian Buck, Nvidia's vice president of hyperscale and high-performance computing, whose contributions to the company's technology ecosystem make him a strong contender.
Buck is credited with inventing CUDA, Nvidia's parallel computing platform, which has become a critical component of the company's artificial intelligence and accelerated computing ecosystem.
"As the inventor of CUDA, Ian is one of the most important figures in Nvidia’s history," Kim wrote.
He further noted that Buck oversees Nvidia's AI hardware and software products deployed with hyperscalers and other customers, giving him an understanding of the company's technology, business and customer relationships.
Kim said Buck possesses "the engineering knowledge, experience, close data center customer relationships, and employee respect needed to lead Nvidia into its next chapter".
While identifying the two executives as his preferred choices, Kim also underlined the importance of retaining Nvidia's senior engineering talent, particularly Jonah Alben, the company's senior vice president of GPU engineering.
Kim said Alben was essential to maintaining Nvidia's AI GPU roadmap and that retaining him would help ensure continuity in the company's long-term technological strategy.
"With Ian and Jonah, Nvidia’s long-term technology roadmap will stay intact," he wrote.
Kim's latest assessment also marks a shift from the position he had expressed in his earlier writing about Nvidia's dependence on Huang. Addressing readers who had cited his book as evidence that Nvidia could not succeed without its founder, Kim said his views had evolved over the years.