Is Nvidia cooked without Jensen Huang?

Résumé détaillé

In this Sunday edition of Business Insider Today, we're talking about what's next for Nvidia in a post-Huang world.

We're about to learn just how much one person truly matters to the AI economy.

Jensen Huang was larger than life at Nvidia. He was the AI boom's most recognizable evangelist, the chip maker's chief visionary and dealmaker, and the force behind Nvidia's ascent to the most valuable company on the planet.

As Zak Jason writes, the cult of the tech founder has very much become America's religion. And Huang was "its most convincing saint."

A week ago, Huang admitted to an affair and apologized to his family. Nvidia disclosed it was investigating whether he was the target of a foreign intelligence effort. And then The New York Times reported a second affair, this one with an Nvidia executive who was one of Huang's direct reports. He resigned on Thursday.

Huang's abrupt downfall is a stress test of founder worship. The market put a price on it: Nvidia's market cap tumbled $573 billion last week, more than all but 18 companies in the entire S&P 500.

"It's like the Bulls without Jordan," author Stephen Witt, who wrote a biography on Huang, said on CNBC. "I don't know how they are going to replace this guy."

That is the essence of key-man risk, as my colleagues Sarah E. Needleman and Tim Paradis reported. When one leader is so closely identified with the strategy, the products, and the culture, their departure can create a vacuum that no org chart (let alone one with 60 direct reports to the CEO) can immediately fill.

Much of Silicon Valley came to Huang's defense in recent days. Sarah Guo, a venture capitalist, called him "one of the most extraordinary entrepreneurs of all time." Sequoia's Shaun Maguire said Huang's "contributions to American innovation and AI leadership cannot be overstated."

A petition to reinstate Huang as Nvidia CEO circulated over the weekend, collecting more than 100,000 signatures, including those of Elon Musk and other prominent figures. Our own Alistair Barr also points to new reports that are casting doubt on the intelligence behind Jensen Huang's downfall.

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