Nvidia board courts Arm's Rene Haas as staff push to bring back Huang
Nvidia's board has approached Arm Holdings chief executive Rene Haas as it hunts for a successor to Jensen Huang, even as employees press for the former CEO's return, according to reports the company has not confirmed.
The approach, first reported by the Financial Times, places Haas among several candidates under consideration, with no guarantee he will be offered the role or accept it. Nvidia's board said it is still selecting a search firm and has not formally engaged any potential candidates. "Any speculation regarding individual candidates, whether internal or external, is premature," it said in a statement.
Haas spent seven years at Nvidia, rising to vice president and general manager of its computing products business, before joining Arm in 2013 and becoming its CEO in 2022. Shay Boloor, chief market strategist at Futurum Equities, said Haas is "one of few external candidates who wouldn't need to be brought up to speed on Nvidia".
Huang stepped down on Thursday after revelations of extramarital affairs, including one involving a suspected Chinese spy. Chief financial officer Colette Kress is interim CEO. Nvidia shares closed about 2 per cent lower, taking losses for the week to roughly $573 billion in market value, while Arm's US-listed shares fell about 5 per cent.
A longtime Nvidia engineer had urged the board in an internal post to weigh employee sentiment before acting, and the thread has drawn more than 1,600 comments, several calling for Huang's reinstatement, according to Wired. Elon Musk said on X that a petition to reinstate Huang was underway and that he would sign it. Nvidia and Arm declined to comment.
