Nvidia’s search for a new CEO is already producing big names. The company’s board has approached Arm CEO Rene Haas as a possible successor to Jensen Huang, according to the Financial Times, as reported by Tom’s Hardware. Haas is one of several candidates being considered, and it isn’t clear whether he’ll receive a formal offer or accept one. Meanwhile, a small symbol of Huang’s story has quietly disappeared from a Denny’s in San Jose.
Where Nvidia’s leadership stands
Huang resigned as president, CEO and board member on November 12, effective immediately. Nvidia named CFO Colette Kress interim CEO and said its board would consider both internal and external candidates for the permanent job. Neither Arm nor Nvidia commented on the Financial Times report.
Why Rene Haas makes sense
Haas is no stranger to Nvidia. According to Tom’s Hardware, he spent about seven years there before leaving in 2013, working as a vice president on projects including notebook GPUs, Windows on Arm and Tegra chips. He has run Arm since 2022 and led it through its 2023 stock market listing, so he has experience with investors and regulators.
He has also shown he’s willing to shake things up. Under Haas, Arm launched Compute Subsystems, complete pre-validated processor designs for customers, and its own-brand AGI CPU, putting it in direct competition with some of its traditional customers. And Arm’s technology sits inside chips from hundreds of companies, including Nvidia, Apple, Qualcomm and MediaTek, giving him a view across the whole industry. Tom’s Hardware adds that he reportedly has close ties to Huang and several Nvidia board members.
The challenge: Nvidia is much bigger
The main question mark is scale. Arm has around 10,000 employees and mostly licenses chip designs. Nvidia has about 42,000 employees and designs CPUs, GPUs, networking gear, complete AI systems and software. Running it would be a far bigger job than anything Haas has done before.
The Denny’s plaque is gone
Nvidia’s origin story famously starts at a Denny’s in San Jose, where Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem met to plan the company. In 2023, after Nvidia passed a $1 trillion valuation, the restaurant put up a plaque at their booth reading “The booth that launched a $1 trillion company.” According to NBC News, as cited by Tom’s Hardware, employees say the plaque has now been removed. It’s unclear who ordered it taken down.
For the full story of that booth and how Nvidia grew from it, read our history of Nvidia, from a Denny’s booth to the AI boom.
What to watch next
Nvidia reports its third-quarter results on Tuesday, November 17, its first earnings report since Huang’s departure. Investors will be listening for any update on the CEO search, and on whether the company’s product roadmap stays on track as the board has promised.
Sources: Tom’s Hardware (citing the Financial Times), Tom’s Hardware (citing NBC News), Nvidia: NVIDIA Announces CEO Transition
