Arm Shares Fall 5% After a Report That Nvidia Approached Its CEO to Replace Jensen Huang
Shares of Arm Holdings fell about 5% to roughly $189 on Friday after a report that Nvidia’s board had approached Arm CEO Rene Haas about succeeding Jensen Huang, The Motley Fool reported.
The Financial Times reported the approach, citing people familiar with the matter, according to Reuters. Haas is among several candidates, and there is no guarantee he will be offered the job or accept it.
Huang stepped down as Nvidia’s chief executive on Thursday after revelations of extramarital affairs, including one involving a suspected Chinese spy. His exit plunged the chipmaker into crisis and sent shockwaves across the AI industry.
Nvidia’s finance chief, Colette Kress, is serving as interim CEO. Nvidia shares were down about 2% on Friday.
Nvidia’s board pushed back on the speculation in a statement to CNBC.
“We are in the process of selecting a search firm for the NVIDIA CEO role. We have not formally engaged any potential candidates,” the board said. “Any speculation regarding individual candidates, whether internal or external, is premature.”
Arm declined to comment, and Reuters said it could not independently verify the FT report.
A Familiar Face at Nvidia
Haas spent seven years at Nvidia, rising to vice president and general manager of its computing products business, before joining Arm in 2013. He became Arm’s CEO in 2022 and led the company through its 2023 Nasdaq listing.
“Rene is one of few external candidates who wouldn’t need to be brought up to speed on Nvidia,” Shay Boloor, chief market strategist at Futurum Equities, told Reuters.
Boloor called Haas’s mix of Nvidia know-how and experience running a public chip company “a combination you don’t find very often.”
Other names floated by analysts include Nvidia veteran engineer Ian Buck, AMD chief Lisa Su, Micron chief Sanjay Mehrotra, Marvell head Matt Murphy and Apple hardware chief Johny Srouji.
Losing Haas would be a blow to Arm. The company’s annual report says it is “particularly dependent on our senior management team, including Mr. Haas.”
Arm’s latest quarter was its best second quarter ever, with revenue up 27% to $1.44 billion, The Motley Fool noted. Japan’s SoftBank Group owns about 86% of Arm and would effectively choose Arm’s next CEO if Haas left.
The next Nvidia chief will take over as the company faces heightened regulatory scrutiny and a growing push among U.S. lawmakers to further restrict its chip exports to China.
Some analysts expect the board to move away from Huang’s hands-on style toward a more institutional leadership structure after his three decades at the helm.
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