Nvidia is seeking a new CEO and has approached Arm CEO Rene Haas, who was once mentored by Jensen Huang.

The NVIDIA board has launched a successor search that will impact the fate of the $4 trillion AI chip giant, after founder Jensen Huang resigned following an extramarital affair scandal.

On November 13, according to the UK's Financial Times, the NVIDIA board has contacted Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas regarding succession matters.

(Arm CEO Rene Haas, image source: Arm official website)

This news boosted market sentiment, with Arm’s US shares narrowing their intraday losses but still closing down 4.8%; NVIDIA’s share price also fell more than 2% on the same day.

The NVIDIA board said in a statement that it is “selecting a headhunting firm” and has not “formally contacted” any candidates yet, adding that any speculation about candidates is “premature.”

Jensen Huang announced his resignation on Thursday, ending a 33-year leadership tenure. His departure was triggered by revelations that he had engaged in extramarital relationships with at least one subordinate and one client.

NVIDIA CFO Colette Kress is currently serving as acting CEO, overseeing daily operations, while the NVIDIA board has also commissioned a former federal prosecutor to conduct an independent investigation into Huang’s conduct. US lawmakers have also announced an independent inquiry.

Haas worked at NVIDIA for about seven years, rising to become vice president and general manager of the compute products business. He was personally mentored by Jensen Huang, and the two remain closely connected.

Haas joined Arm in 2013; in 2022, he was appointed CEO of Arm and the following year led the company to its IPO on Nasdaq.

Arm, owned by SoftBank, has processor architecture licenses widely used in the majority of smartphone chips globally and forms a core technical foundation for NVIDIA’s AI hardware.

This year, Arm launched its own fully self-developed AI chip, putting itself in direct competition with its clients. In addition, Haas has a close relationship with SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son. In April of this year, he was appointed to lead SoftBank’s international business, assisting in the company’s AI expansion.

According to reports, Haas is currently one of several candidates, with no guarantee he will be offered—or accept—the role.

Among internal candidates, Colette Kress is seen by analysts as a steady financial steward; veteran engineer Ian Buck has also attracted attention for leading the development of CUDA, the software platform driving NVIDIA’s AI chips, and is viewed as a key figure for technical continuity. Ian Buck currently heads NVIDIA’s data center business.

As for external candidates, according to the Financial Times citing sources, AMD CEO Lisa Su has drawn analyst attention due to her extensive China market experience; Micron Technology CEO Sanjay Mehrotra has also been discussed, as the company's memory chips are widely used in NVIDIA servers.

Additionally, reports indicate that Marvell CEO Matt Murphy and Apple’s hardware chief Johny Srouji are also in consideration. Trump has previously publicly mentioned former Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Jensen Huang led NVIDIA for 33 years, known for being highly hands-on, directly involved in engineering planning, US export-related geopolitical negotiations, and large-scale investments across the AI ecosystem. Analysts expect the next CEO will face pressure to shift toward a more institutionalized management style.

Meanwhile, NVIDIA must also contend with increasingly strict regulatory scrutiny and policy pressure from the US Congress seeking further export controls. How to maintain NVIDIA’s technological advantage in the next-generation AI chip race and manage the multibillion-dollar investment deals fueling the AI boom are unavoidable core issues for Huang’s successor.