Nvidia has a Jensen Huang problem—and no obvious successor

Neal joined Nvidia’s board in 2019 and is chair emeritus and senior counsel at Cooley, after serving as the law firm’s CEO from 2001 to 2008.

Nvidia’s board is unusual among the largest US companies in having no designated chair. A 2025 report by law firm Fenwick found that only one company in S&P 100—which would be Nvidia, according to its own filings—had no chair.

In its proxy filings, Nvidia states that this set-up “ensures that each member has an equal voice in the affairs and management of Nvidia.”

The other nine members of Nvidia’s board—excluding Huang, who is himself a director—include four men who have been with the company since the 1990s, a former Taco Bell executive, a professor of aeronautics, and a former Goldman Sachs executive who joined only this year.

The board’s public statement on Sunday said it had “confidence in Jensen and his leadership team” and that it had “no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised.”

Nonetheless, his admission of an affair on Sunday shocked employees and former colleagues who spoke to the FT.

Madison Huang, Jensen’s daughter who serves as a senior director in Nvidia’s product marketing team and has become an increasingly visible presence at the company’s conferences, canceled a planned appearance at a company event in South Korea on Monday.

The law in Delaware, where Nvidia is incorporated, says executives have certain fiduciary duties including a duty of care and loyalty to their company.

Nvidia’s code of conduct requires executives to “conduct themselves with the highest degree of integrity, ethics and honesty. Our credibility and reputation depend upon their good judgment, ethical standards and personal integrity.”

Even if Huang is found to have breached those guidelines, his defenders in Silicon Valley argue that he is too big to fire.

“Yes he should have known better,” Sequoia’s Maguire said. “But let’s also not nuke our AI industry because China ran a successful intel op.”

Additional reporting by George Steer.

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