Nvidia board approaches Arm CEO Rene Haas to succeed Jensen Huang

Nvidia's board of directors has approached Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas as a potential successor to Jensen Huang. This development follows the resignation of Jensen Huang from the position of Nvidia CEO on November 12, 2026. Colette Kress, who has served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Nvidia since September 2013, is currently serving as the interim CEO.

Leadership transition at Nvidia

The search for a permanent chief executive officer involves the consideration of both internal and external candidates. According to the Financial Times, the board of directors has specifically approached Rene Haas regarding the role. Rene Haas has served as the CEO of Arm since February 2022 and oversaw the company's Nasdaq listing in 2023. Before joining Arm in 2013, Rene Haas worked at Nvidia for seven years, where he served as the vice president and general manager of the computing products business.

Nvidia described the contributions of Jensen Huang as profound and immeasurable. The resignation of Jensen Huang occurred following revelations regarding extramarital affairs, including one involving a suspected Chinese intelligence source, according to FOX Business. While the board evaluates candidates, Harvey Jones, the Chair of the Nvidia Board of Directors, stated that Colette Kress has helped lead Nvidia through extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of the business.

Potential candidates for CEO

The board is evaluating several prominent figures in the semiconductor and technology industries. While the board considers internal options, Hindustan Times reported that analysts have identified several external candidates. These potential candidates include Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, and Sanjay Mehrotra, the CEO of Micron. Other names mentioned by analysts include Matt Murphy, the CEO of Marvell, and Johny Srouji, the hardware chief at Apple. Nvidia engineer Ian Buck has also been identified as a potential candidate for the position.

Arm, the company where Rene Haas currently serves as CEO, declined to comment on the report. Arm is a company that designs processor architectures and licenses them to other companies for use in various devices, including mobile phones and computers.

Market reaction to leadership news

The news regarding the leadership transition and the potential candidacy of Rene Haas has impacted stock markets. Following the report, Arm US-listed shares fell by more than 5%. Nvidia shares also experienced a decline, falling by over 3%. The company continues to manage its leadership transition under the guidance of the board of directors and interim CEO Colette Kress.

Glossary

• Arm Holdings — Arm Holdings plc is a British semiconductor and software design company. Its primary business is the design of central processing unit (CPU) cores that implement the ARM architecture family of instruction sets.
• Nasdaq — Nasdaq Tallinn AS is a stock exchange operating in Tallinn, Estonia. It is the only regulated secondary securities market in Estonia.
• Micron — Micron Technology, Inc. is an American multinational semiconductor company. It manufactures computer memory and computer data storage products, such as DRAM, flash memory, HBM, and SSDs.
• Marvell — Marvell Technology, Inc. is an American company that develops and produces semiconductors and related technology. It is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.