---
title: "Nvidia opens its first CEO search in 33 years with Jensen Huang keeping a $132 billion stake"
description: "The board that accepted Jensen Huang's resignation on November 11 handed Nvidia to a finance chief who has never run a profit-and-loss, while the founder's family holds posts across marketing, robotics and AI infrastructure. Tuesday's earnings and a February selling window will price how long the vacuum lasts."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Chips"
published: 2026-11-15T15:30:32.509Z
modified: 2026-11-15T15:30:32.509Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/nvidia-opens-its-first-ceo-search-in-33-years-with-jensen-huang-keeping-a-132-billion-stake
language: en
keywords: "Nvidia, Executive Succession, Semiconductors, Corporate Governance, Insider Selling"
---

# Nvidia opens its first CEO search in 33 years with Jensen Huang keeping a $132 billion stake

> The board that accepted Jensen Huang's resignation on November 11 handed Nvidia to a finance chief who has never run a profit-and-loss, while the founder's family holds posts across marketing, robotics and AI infrastructure. Tuesday's earnings and a February selling window will price how long the vacuum lasts.

## He said the next CEO 'has to be hired'

"Just as I can be fired, the next CEO has to be hired," [Jensen Huang](https://theinference.org/markets/people/jensen-huang), [Nvidia](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/nvidia)'s chief executive for all 33 years since co-founding the company, told Bloomberg's The Circuit in [an interview recorded on October 14](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/jensen-huang-on-nvidia-succession-weeks-before-scandal-hit-just-as-i-can-be-fired-the-next-ceo-has-to-be-hired/ar-AA2hhQpt), weeks before the scandal broke [1].

The board accepted his resignation on November 11 and announced it the next morning: Huang out as president, chief executive and director at once; finance chief [Colette Kress](https://theinference.org/markets/people/colette-kress) interim CEO while keeping the CFO job; the permanent search open to internal and external candidates [2][3]. The trigger was New York Times reporting on two affairs, one with [a woman U.S. officials concluded was a Chinese intelligence asset](https://theinference.org/article/trump-knew-about-a-spy-next-to-nvidia-s-chief-and-chose-the-stock) [2].

## The vacuum already has a price

Nvidia's valuation peaked at $5.8 trillion in early October; the stock closed Friday at its lowest since July 2025, about 32 percent below its October 6 record [3][4]. Three former Fortune 500 CEOs told Fortune the governance hole is "preposterous [3][4]."

Kress's resume lists a quarter century in Big Tech finance, 13 years of it at [Microsoft](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/microsoft), and no job where she ran a business or owned a profit-and-loss [3]. Huang's roughly 60 direct reports left no lieutenant tested for the top job, they said [3]. By Fortune's count, none of the seven other directors has run a Fortune 500 company, and four have been seated 13 to 29 years [3].

## An activist would have had a case

"If Nvidia hadn't been performing well, it would have been exhibit A for an activist attack," one of them said, meaning a campaign by an activist hedge fund to force board and management change [3]. Ownership was no check: the biggest holders are all institutions [3]. The board's first fix was itself, naming former [Synopsys](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/synopsys) chief executive [Harvey](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/harvey) Jones as Nvidia's first-ever chair [2].

*Chart: **Nvidia's biggest owners are all institutions; Jensen Huang's 3.5% is the largest individual stake** Bar chart of Nvidia's largest shareholders by percent of shares outstanding: Blackstone 8.1%, Vanguard 6.5%, Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price and J.P. Morgan combined about 5%, State Street 4.2%, Fidelity 3.9%, and Jensen Huang at 3.5%.*

*Percent of Nvidia shares outstanding as tallied by Fortune, November 15, 2026; the Morgan Stanley bar combines Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price and J.P. Morgan holdings. [3]*

## The founder's family stays on the org chart

Madison Huang, the founder's daughter, is senior director of product marketing for physical AI, Nvidia's term for the AI that runs robots and machines, and former employees told Business Insider her influence runs past the title: "She's like a little mini Jensen, his eyes and ears inside the business" [5]. Her fiscal 2026 pay was $1.23 million, up from a cap of $165,000 three years earlier; brother Spencer, director of product for robotics, made $1.32 million; husband Nico Caprez is vice president of global AI infrastructure growth [6][5].

*Chart: **The founder's daughter and son each draw seven to eight times the 2023 cap on their jobs** Bar chart of pay on two Nvidia family roles: a $165,000 cap three years earlier, Madison Huang's $1.23 million for fiscal 2026 and Spencer Huang's $1.32 million.*

*Total pay in dollars for Jensen Huang's daughter and son, both Nvidia employees, against the $165,000 cap on the roles three years earlier, as reported by Business Insider and Mint in November 2026. [5][6]*

Nvidia said the family's pay follows its standard benchmarks for comparable jobs, without Jensen Huang's involvement or influence [6]. Former employees said Madison lacks the technical experience to succeed her father now, one imagining her taking the helm in a decade [5]. Her father had already ruled out the shortcut, in that October 14 interview: "If that's their aspiration, Spencer or Madison's, they have to go earn it" [1].

## The stake, and the window to move it

Huang keeps about 812 million shares, worth about $132 billion at Friday's close, and forfeits about $108 million in unvested awards; about 70 million shares are his outright, the other 740 million or so sit in family trusts, including one he runs with his wife, Lori [4].

His insider status runs three months past November 11, so big sales need [public notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/jensen-huang-leaves-nvidia-with-a-132-billion-stake--heres-when-he-can-sell-and-why-investors-may-not-know-when-he-does-chart-of-the-day-130732443.html) until mid-February [4]. Between that date and the late-February annual report sits a roughly two-week stretch, after the notice requirement ends and before the filing lands, that has drawn attention online; selling on what he knows and the market does not would stay illegal through all of it [4].

## The buyback is bigger than the stake

Liz Thomas, [SoFi](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/sofi)'s chief market strategist, calls the stake "an overhang on the trade for the foreseeable future" [4]. The cushion is real: Nvidia had $235 billion left on its buyback as of September 28, enough to absorb every share he owns, against a stake worth under six days of typical trading [4]. Tuesday, November 17 brings [the fiscal third-quarter report](https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/nvidia-sets-conference-call-for-third-quarter-financial-results-1036679586), for the quarter ended October 25, on Huang's watch and guided in August to $108.0 billion of revenue; its filing shows whether he left a preplanned trading plan on his way out [7][8][4].

*Chart: **Nvidia's quarterly revenue has grown 5.3-fold since late 2023, and it guides the next quarter to $108 billion** Line chart of Nvidia revenue by quarter, from $18.1 billion in the quarter ended October 2023 to $96.2 billion in the quarter ended July 2026, with the quarter ended October 2026 guided at $108 billion.*

*Quarterly revenue in billions of dollars, fiscal quarters ended October 2023 through July 2026, from Nvidia's SEC filings; the last point is the $108.0 billion the company guided in August 2026 for the quarter ended October 25, ahead of the November 17 report. [10][8]*

## Hold the discount, or wait for the hire

Reporting on candidates leans outside the company: analyst Dan Ives sees a "good chance Nvidia's board looks to the outside for a CEO," and the names floated include [Arm](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/arm) chief executive Rene Haas and Ian Buck, who runs Nvidia's data-center business [9][2]. Until a hire lands, the choice is to carry the vacuum's discount into Tuesday's print or wait for the permanent appointment, and two dated tells will do the pricing: the trading-plan disclosure in Tuesday's filing, and any sale in the post-insider February gap [4].

## Takeaway

Nvidia's board has no tested heir, handed the company to a finance chief who has never run a profit-and-loss, and left a founder holding 3.5% and a $132 billion stake he can start selling in mid-February.

## Sources

1. [Business Insider via MSN (Thibault Spirlet), "Jensen Huang on Nvidia succession weeks before scandal hit: 'Just as I can be fired, the next CEO has to be hired'", 12 November 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/jensen-huang-on-nvidia-succession-weeks-before-scandal-hit-just-as-i-can-be-fired-the-next-ceo-has-to-be-hired/ar-AA2hhQpt)
2. [Decrypt (Decrypt Agent), "Jensen Huang Resigns as Nvidia CEO, With CFO Colette Kress Named Interim Chief", 12 November 2026](https://decrypt.co/383134/jensen-huang-resigns-as-nvidia-ceo-with-cfo-colette-kress-named-interim-chief)
3. [Fortune via Yahoo Finance (Shawn Tully), "Nvidia had no succession plan when Jensen Huang quit. Former Fortune 500 CEOs call it 'preposterous'", 15 November 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/nvidia-had-no-succession-plan-100000756.html)
4. [Yahoo Finance (Jared Blikre), "Jensen Huang leaves Nvidia with a $132 billion stake: here's when he can sell and why investors may not know when he does", 15 November 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/jensen-huang-leaves-nvidia-with-a-132-billion-stake--heres-when-he-can-sell-and-why-investors-may-not-know-when-he-does-chart-of-the-day-130732443.html)
5. [Business Insider (Geoff Weiss), "Inside Madison Huang's growing influence at Nvidia", 15 November 2026](https://www.businessinsider.com/madison-huang-growing-influence-at-nvidia-jensen-daughter-2026-11)
6. [Mint via MSN (Devansh Sharma), "Who are Jensen Huang's children, Madison and Spencer? Former pastry chef and cocktail bar owner making $2.55mn at Nvidia", 12 November 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/who-are-jensen-huang-s-children-madison-and-spencer-former-pastry-chef-and-cocktail-bar-owner-making-255mn-at-nvidia/ar-AA2hgESu)
7. [NVIDIA press release via GlobeNewswire (Markets Insider), "NVIDIA Sets Conference Call for Third-Quarter Financial Results", 28 October 2026](https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/nvidia-sets-conference-call-for-third-quarter-financial-results-1036679586)
8. [24/7 Wall St. (Jeremy Phillips), "Nvidia Reports Earnings Tuesday Without Jensen Huang for the First Time. It Promised $108 Billion", 12 November 2026](https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/11/12/nvidia-reports-earnings-tuesday-without-jensen-huang-for-the-first-time-it-promised-108-billion-and-the-stock-fell-after-3-of-its-last-4-reports/)
9. [Associated Press via U.S. News & World Report, "Who Is Colette Kress, Nvidia's Interim CEO? Longtime Exec Takes Top Spot After Jensen Huang Resigns", 12 November 2026](https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2026-11-12/who-is-colette-kress-nvidias-interim-ceo-longtime-exec-takes-top-spot-after-jensen-huang-resigns)
10. [Nvidia, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 15 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001045810)


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Nvidia opens its first CEO search in 33 years with Jensen Huang keeping a $132 billion stake — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/nvidia-opens-its-first-ceo-search-in-33-years-with-jensen-huang-keeping-a-132-billion-stake