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British chipmaker CEO Rene Haas approached by Nvidia board to replace Jensen Huang: Report
Nvidia's board said it was in the process of selecting a search firm for the CEO role and had not formally engaged any potential candidates.
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Nvidia's board has approached Arm Holdings chief executive Rene Haas as a potential successor to Jensen Huang, who stepped down from the chipmaker on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a separate report said some Nvidia employees were pushing for Huang's return.
Huang's exit followed revelations of extramarital affairs, including one involving a suspected Chinese spy, pushing the chipmaker into a crisis.
Arm CEO in contention
Deep Dive
Haas has emerged as a potential candidate following Huang's departure. He spent seven formative years at Nvidia, rising to vice president and general manager of its computing products business, before joining Arm in 2013.
He is among several candidates being considered, although the Financial Times reported on Friday that there is no guarantee he will be offered the job or accept it. reported. Nvidia finance chief Colette Kress is currently serving as interim CEO.
Nvidia's board said it was in the process of selecting a search firm for the CEO role and had not formally engaged any potential candidates.
"Any speculation regarding individual candidates, whether internal or external, is premature," the board said in a statement.
Also Read: 'Quite arrogant', family man persona an act: Jensen Huang's biographer after Nvidia CEO's exit
Employees push for Huang's return
Before Huang's resignation, a longtime Nvidia engineer had urged the board in an internal post to consider employee sentiment before taking any action, Wired reported late on Thursday.
The post has since attracted more than 1,600 comments, with several employees urging the board to find a way to bring Huang back, the technology news platform said, citing internal correspondence it reviewed. Nvidia has about 42,000 employees worldwide.
Billionaire Elon Musk separately said on X that a petition was underway to reinstate Huang and that he would sign it. It was not immediately clear whether Musk was referring to the internal effort reported by Wired.
Nvidia declined to comment on the Wired report or Musk's post, while Arm also declined to comment. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
Why is Haas being considered?
Haas became Arm's CEO in 2022 and oversaw the company's Nasdaq listing in 2023. Arm designs processor architectures and licenses them to other companies that develop chip designs. Its historical strength has been in mobile phones, although it is expanding into computers.
His familiarity with Nvidia, combined with his experience running a publicly traded chip company, could make him an unusual fit for the role, said Shay Boloor, chief market strategist at Futurum Equities.
"Rene is one of theew external candidates who wouldn't need to be brought up to speed on Nvidia," Boloor said, adding that Haas' understanding of the company's culture alongside his experience running Arm was "a combination you don't find very often."
Arm's US-listed shares closed down about 5%, while Nvidia shares ended the session about 2% lower. The decline brought Nvidia's market value losses for the week to about $573 billion.
Who else is in the running?
Analysts view Kress as a steady financial authority, while veteran engineer Ian Buck is considered a leading contender after overseeing the development of CUDA, the software platform that powers Nvidia's AI chips.
Among the external candidates discussed by analysts are AMD chief Lisa Su, who has navigated the key China market, and Micron chief Sanjay Mehrotra, whose company's memory chips power Nvidia servers.,
US President Donald Trump also suggested former Apple chief Tim Cook, as Nvidia's board weighs whether to prioritise financial continuity, deep technical expertise, or experience running a global technology heavyweight.
Other names cited by industry watchers include Marvell head Matt Murphy and Apple hardware chief Johny Srouji, who oversaw the iPhone maker's in-house silicon development.
(With inputs from agencies)
