Jensen Huang is out. His successor has the toughest job in tech

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A company built around one man must now learn to run without him | World News

TWO OF THE world’s most valuable companies have changed bosses in recent months. They could hardly have done so more differently. At Apple, Tim Cook made way for John Ternus in September under what the iPhone-maker called a “long-term succession plan”. Nvidia’s succession plan lasted four days. Jensen Huang, the chip giant’s only boss in its 33-year history, never intended to leave. On November 8th he confessed to an affair; on November 12th, after further revelations about his private life, he resigned.

The job has fallen, for now, to Colette Kress, Nvidia’s finance chief since 2013, who has been named interim chief executive. She was never coached for the top job, and will need to learn fast. Since news of the scandal broke Nvidia’s shares have lost about 20% of their value (see chart). Besides calming investors, she will need to shore up suppliers, mend fences with Washington and hold together the vast web of financing schemes and partnerships that has fuelled Nvidia’s breakneck growth.

Ms Kress inherits one of the most formidable money-making machines in corporate history. Two-thirds of the world’s artificial-intelligence computing power runs on Nvidia’s chips. Its gross margins hover around 75%, against 55% at AMD, a rival chip designer. This financial year analysts expect it to bring in more than $400bn in revenue, nearly double last year’s total. And it is sitting on around $100bn in cash and liquid financial instruments.

Ms Kress’s first test will come on November 17th, when Nvidia reports its latest earnings. A blowout quarter would soothe nerves. But investors will also want assurances that Nvidia can still achieve the 70% revenue growth it has promised for next year. She will need to convince them that the upheaval at the top will not distract the company at a time when it faces formidable rivals, including AMD and cloud giants such as Google and Amazon, which now design their own AI chips.

Next is the chip giant’s intricate supply chain.

Ensuring that its…

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