NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has recently been involved in China's chip export and national security disputes due to his personal relationship, which has brought the AI ​​chip giant's succession issue to the forefront. Posted on November 9 by Martin Peers, columnist for The InformationAnalyze articles, speculated that headhunting companies may have begun looking for potential successors in the semiconductor industry, and proposed two unexpected candidates: Lisa Su, CEO of Huida's largest competitor Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Rene Haas, CEO of Arm.

Huang Renxun’s personal controversy spreads, and Huida’s board of directors launches an internal investigation

Jen-Hsun Huang has recently attracted attention due to his personal relationship with Chinese businessman Alice Huang. Huang Le and his related companies are accused of being involved in shipping Huida AI chips that are subject to U.S. export controls to China, and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is also investigating whether Huang has become the target of foreign intelligence operations.

Huang Le, along with her husband and sisters, established a corporate network spanning China and Singapore, and allegedly helped obtain approximately 240,000 H100, H200 and some A100 chips, involving at least US$7.5 billion in chip transactions. Huida's independent directors have hired former U.S. federal prosecutor Joon Kim to lead an internal investigation. The company said it currently has no reason to believe that U.S. national security or corporate secrets have been compromised, and Huang Jensen also promised to cooperate with the investigation.

The controversy has hit Huida's share price, with about $430 billion wiped off its market value in two trading days, reflecting concerns about corporate governance, export controls and the CEO's personal risks.

Su Zifeng takes over Huida? Rival AMD CEO becomes unexpected choice

Lisa Su is the current chairman and CEO of AMD. She has led the company's transformation since 2014, leading AMD to gradually expand from the personal computer processor market to server CPUs, data center GPUs and AI accelerators. Martin Peers pointed out in the article that Su Zifeng is one of the few CEOs with management experience in large semiconductor companies and is familiar with the AI ​​chip market. Under her leadership, AMD has gradually become Huida’s most watched competitor in the AI ​​accelerator market.

However, if Su Zifeng transfers to Huida, he will face two complicated factors. First of all, AMD and Huida have a direct competitive relationship. The two companies continue to compete for customers in the GPU, AI accelerator and data center computing markets. Secondly, Su Zifeng and Huang Renxun are distantly related, which may also make succession arrangements more sensitive.

Arm CEO Haas is also a candidate, having served at Huida for seven years.

Rene Haas is the current CEO of Arm and will take over the company in 2022. He has worked at Huida for about seven years and has experience in chip design, semiconductor licensing and global enterprise account management. Compared to Su Zifeng, Peers believes that Haas has different advantages. Not only is he familiar with the semiconductor industry, he has also worked for Huida for many years and has a certain understanding of the company's products and corporate culture.

Although Arm itself does not directly manufacture GPUs, its CPU architecture is widely used in smartphones, data centers and AI computing equipment. Haas has long-term cooperation with global semiconductor companies and has extensive experience in the chip industry supply chain, licensing models and customer relationships.

Huida’s biggest problem: Huang Renxun has too much decision-making power and no clear second-in-command internally

Jensen Huang has led the company for more than 33 years, since co-founding Huida in 1993. According to Reuters, Huida adopts a relatively flat management system, with more than 60 senior managers reporting directly to Huang Renxun, allowing him to be deeply involved in product research and development, corporate strategy, customer cooperation and daily decision-making. This structure allows Huida to maintain a high degree of execution efficiency during the rapid changes in the AI ​​industry, but it also means that the company lacks a clear number two person who can take over the overall situation at any time.

Possible internal candidates currently under discussion include Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress, and Vice President Ian Buck, who has long been involved in the development of Huida’s GPU computing technology. Kress is familiar with Huida's finance, investor relations and capital market operations, and is therefore considered a possible transitional leader; Buck has a strong technical background, but whether he has the management experience to fully take over Huida remains to be evaluated.

In addition, Huang Renxun's two children also work at Huida, but there is currently no public information confirming that the company has a family succession plan. Bernstein analysts have described that Huang Jen-Hsun and Huida have become almost inseparable. This highlights the key person risk faced by investors: when a company's operations, product strategy and market confidence are highly dependent on a single leader, any sudden personnel changes may affect the company's valuation and long-term development.

this article Huang Renxun is deeply involved in the communist espionage case! Technology media named Su Zifeng, Arm CEO or Cheng Huida's successor first appeared in Chain News ABMedia。