Nvidia Has Hired an Outside Firm to Find Jensen Huang’s Replacement Omor Ibne Ehsan Thu, November 12, 2026 at 7:17 AM EST 5 min read NVDA -7.76% AAPL +0.46% Explore stocks on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
Nvidia's board has reportedly hired an outside firm to find Jensen Huang's replacement, sending shares down 9% after hours to a new 52-week low.
Bloomberg's sources say some directors favor CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO, while Apple's Johny Srouji is reportedly under consideration.
Nvidia has publicly expressed confidence in Huang, and he says he will cooperate fully with the board's investigation.
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On the evening of Wednesday, November 11, 2026, Bloomberg reported that the board of NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) has been working with an outside firm to identify potential replacements for CEO Jensen Huang. Directors are reportedly considering whether to name a temporary chief executive while they search for a permanent one. This comes after a second affair was reported by The New York Times, and this time, with an executive inside Nvidia.
No leadership change had been announced yet. Requests for comment to Nvidia were not immediately returned.
The stock fell before any decision was made. Shares closed the regular session at $173.73, up $4.84 or 2.87%, then traded at $158.76 at 7:59 p.m. ET. That was a drop of $14.97, or 8.62%, and it put the price below the 52-week low of $164.27.
Nvidia's own statements point the other way. Earlier on November 8, the board opened an investigation into reports that Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. The board said it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised, and it expressed "confidence in Jensen and his leadership team."
On November 10, the independent directors retained former acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim and his firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, to run that probe. In a memo to employees, Huang said he supports the investigation and "will cooperate fully."
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Huang may have gotten away with it, until this second affair with vice president of healthcare Kimberly Powell was discovered.
Reports now say Nvidia's board is preparing to kick Huang off. Board members favor Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim CEO if Huang is removed, and the board briefed the White House, per a senior administration official. One person said Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) hardware chief Johny Srouji is being considered.
D.A. Davidson's Gil Luria said an immediate removal would be difficult because Nvidia has no succession plan in place. A board with no designated successor has to hire a search firm and name a temporary leader, and a search for the head of a company this size usually takes months.
An interim chief usually keeps strategy steady and avoids big new commitments. Kress already manages the company's guidance, including third-quarter revenue of $108.0 billion, plus or minus 2%. Putting her in charge would leave the person who sets those forecasts as the one explaining them to investors.
Considering a candidate from Apple shows the board is willing to look beyond its own executives. The White House briefing shows the matter has national weight.
Nvidia was falling before the report. Shares were down 13.19% over one week and 23.24% over one month. After hours, the stock touched $156.20 around 5:25 p.m. ET, about 10.1% below the close.
The company's market value was $4.20 trillion at the close. Using 24.15 billion shares, the after-hours price means an estimated $3.83 trillion, or about $362 billion lost.
After-hours trading is thin, so the regular session opening at 9:30 a.m. ET on November 12 will set the real price. The main risks are leadership uncertainty during a debate over slowing AI spending, the risk of losing a founder, and a board process with no set timeline.
Demand data still supports the business. A brokerage that downgraded the stock Wednesday still noted that demand for Nvidia chips exceeds supply, and nothing in the reporting affects orders, products, or the $279.0 billion in supply commitments.
The next test is the third-quarter report, scheduled for Tuesday, November 17, with a 5 p.m. ET call. Keep an eye on who leads the call, whether the $108.0 billion forecast holds, and whether the board addresses leadership.
Concerns would deepen if shares close below the $156.20 after-hours low in the days after November 17. And of course, if another affair is discovered or if Huang ends up joining an Nvidia competitor, things can get messier for NVDA stock.
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