Special Report: The Fall Of Jensen Huang & What Comes Next

Alex Kantrowitz (0:00)

Jensen Huang is out as the CEO of Nvidia in a stunning fall from grace, but that's not the end of the story. It's just the beginning. That's coming up on a Big Technology Podcast Friday edition special report about the fall of Jensen Huang right after this.

How do you price intelligence as a service? How do you charge for delivering end to end work, not just access? Those questions remain front and center for AI founders and operators and getting to the right fit business model, whether that's selling usage credits, outcomes, seats, or a hybrid combination requires constant iteration. Chargebee is the billing and monetization infrastructure that powers just that for ambitious, fast scaling AI businesses. Visit chargebee.com/alex to learn more. That's chargebee.com/alex.

Welcome to Big Technology Podcast Friday edition, where we break down the news in our traditional cool headed and nuanced format. Today, we look into the fall of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, what's responsible for bringing him down, but also what lies ahead for the company and its competitors and USAI Labs in the aftermath of this stunning news development. We're going to break it down in depth for you today in a one topic show. And we're joined as always by Ranjan Roy of Margins. Ranjan, good to see you, welcome to the show.

Ranjan Roy (1:20)

What a boring week, what a boring week. Nothing has happened this week.

Alex Kantrowitz (1:25)

So we pick up this week, we're going to go through a lot about the ousting of Jensen Huang from Nvidia, but we're also going to talk a lot about, again, about what it means for the company and its competitors. There's stuff that we're going to discuss that I think has not been talked about in the broader narrative about what's going to happen. And so I'm very excited to speak with you about it today. Let's get to the news right away.

It's from the Wall Street Journal. Jensen Huang has been ousted as Nvidia CEO.

Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang has resigned after two extra marital affairs, including one with a suspected Chinese spy and another with an employee. Well, the news is moving so fast that when this was written after he was ousted, another affair came out shortly afterwards, and it's probably not the last. The company said Thursday that Finance Chief Collette Cress had agreed to serve as interim CEO until a permanent successor is named. The board is starting a search for the company's next CEO and will consider internal and external candidates. Now, I did a special report, SoloPod, on Monday about what was going to happen to Jensen. And because there was just one affair, I thought the board, at that point, I thought the board would do whatever it could to hang on to him. And that's how I concluded that show. Turns out, much more came out, not just about the affairs, but about the business dealings that he had had in allegedly funneling chips to China that were restricted there and going against the export control. So that will be a big story that will actually continue to roll through the next couple months. But Ranjan, I just want to get your reaction here on the surprise level of what's happened since we've last spoken. Where would you rate this one?

Ranjan Roy (3:09)

I can't even, I have a hard time even trying to remember the world when we last spoke, because it is a very different one now. I mean, we're going to dig into it. I think all I can keep thinking is that this is the beginning, not the end of the story, that there is so much more to come out, that there's so many twists and turns in terms of how this kind of overlays over the entire AI story, like US politics, the anthropic IPO that we'll be talking about hopefully next week. Like all of this is directly connected, and this is just kind of the first explosion in whatever is to come soon.

Alex Kantrowitz (3:51)

Now there were signs. I mean, he did sign a boob, sorry, he signed a bra at a conference.

Ranjan Roy (3:58)

Maybe that was...

Alex Kantrowitz (4:00)

Well, okay. Well, anyway, I don't want to get technical about it because that debate could last a while.

But I don't know. I go between we should have known better. And everyone just kind of brushed that off and sort of like, well, unless you have direct reporting on it or direct knowledge, how would you know?

Ranjan Roy (4:18)

Well, I still think this is one of those reminders that the cult of personality for technology leaders has just become so big that everyone overlook, everyone just kind of falls for it. Again, I keep thinking like there is such a narrative that was built around, you know, like he doesn't do anything but work, he's answering emails at 3M. Remember, we sadly said he was going to be the good face of the AI industry a while ago.