It’s almost inconceivable that Nvidia would fire its rock star CEO. Yet here we are, on the precipice of this happening. Over at Kalshi, Jensen Huang’s odds of surviving the week are sitting at a lowly 30%. Even though he built one of the world’s most valuable — and, many would argue, dangerously powerful — companies, the tides have completely turned against him. He has confessed to an extramarital affair, but as of Wednesday afternoon it isn’t even clear whom he meant: Alice Huang, the Chinese executive suspected by U.S. intelligence of spying for her country, or Kimberly Powell, an Nvidia executive who reports to him and who, five sources told The New York Times in an explosive new report, was also a paramour.
Even if Huang is pushed out as CEO, the board members he has made very rich are unlikely to cut him loose entirely. Barring another shoe dropping, they could keep him on as chairman, a role Nvidia doesn’t currently have. But someone still has to run the company, and there’s no apparent succession plan, which leaves us, like everyone else, to speculate while we wait to see what happens next. While Huang’s 60 direct reports undoubtedly get a closer look, consider this our own parlor game, featuring some obvious and less obvious candidates: