Jensen Huang Is Out. Will Nvidia’s Rivals Cash In?

In a bonus episode of WIRED's Uncanny Valley, editors Brian Barrett, Zoë Schiffer and Leah Feiger worked through the founder's resignation, what interim CEO Colette Kress means for Nvidia, and whether competitors can capitalize. Their answer, roughly: not quickly, but over time, yes.

That question matters because so much of the AI economy depends on one supplier. The hosts described the US economy as heavily tied to a few companies, naming Nvidia and Anthropic. A leadership shock at the company making the chips ripples into every lab, cloud and startup buying them.

We agree with the core of their take. GPUs are not an app you can clone in a few months. Schiffer made the point that when a social platform stumbles, a rival can ship a competitor quickly, but advanced chips take years of research and manufacturing. In the short run, customers who might want to diversify away from Nvidia mostly have nowhere better to go.

The longer-term story is different, and Barrett framed it well. Big buyers are already designing their own silicon to tune hardware to their software, much as phone makers did after Apple's processors showed what was possible. A scandal like this turns a side project into a priority. If an AI lab has been dabbling in its own chips, this is the kind of moment that unlocks budget and urgency. We think that is good for the industry overall. A market with more than one viable supplier is healthier, more resilient and harder to weaponize in geopolitics.

On Kress, the hosts saw a classic CFO and a stabilizer. She has been at Nvidia since 2013, after Cisco and Microsoft, and knows the business deeply. Barrett expected business as usual, including continued advocacy for selling to China, and argued she can make that case without the baggage her predecessor now carries. That is plausible, though we'd note that the China question is now tied up in congressional inquiries that an interim leader cannot easily steer.

The governance point stood out most to us. Barrett noted the founder owns about 3.5 percent of Nvidia, which is why the board could act at all, unlike companies where founders hold controlling votes. He also pointed out there was no succession plan and around 60 direct reports. Our read: the absence of a bench was a risk shareholders carried for years without much complaint. The lesson for every AI company, especially the labs heading toward public markets, is that key-person risk is real and should be planned for before a crisis.

The hosts also suggested China hawks will use this moment to push for tighter trade rules. That debate will shape where AI chips can be sold far more than any product launch this year.

The founder resigned after admitting an affair with an alleged Chinese intelligence asset and after reports of at least two more alleged relationships with employees; the hosts noted Nvidia policy bars relationships with direct reports. Colette Kress, Nvidia's CFO, is serving as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor.