How Nvidia's Dependence On Jensen Huang Could Become Big Risk For Investors

Jensen Huang spent decades building Nvidia into one of the world's most valuable companies and the engine of the AI boom, using a rare talent for winning over politicians, CEOs and dealmakers around the globe. Now, his confession of an extra-marital affair with a suspected Chinese spy has put his position under threat, and the company he built has no public plan for life without him.Huang, the co-founder and CEO, made Nvidia a linchpin of the technological arms race, striking deals to supply cutting-edge chips and financial backstops to everyone from emerging cloud companies to leading AI providers.

Huang, 63, has said he doesn't believe in succession planning, saying he wants to cultivate the next generation of leaders so the company could have many potential successors. He runs Nvidia with a flat structure of roughly 60 direct reports, and the board has not publicly named a successor, even as the company's own proxy statement warns that weak succession planning could damage its long-term success.