Nvidia board has not picked search firm for permanent Huang successor

Board says no candidates engaged yet

Nvidia's board has told CNBC that it has not yet chosen a search firm to help find a permanent replacement for former chief executive Jensen Huang. In a statement issued on Friday, the board said it is in the process of selecting such a firm and has not formally engaged any potential candidates.

The statement was an attempt to calm speculation about who might take over. The board added that any talk about individual candidates, whether internal or external, is premature.

Report of an approach to Arm's chief

According to the Financial Times, the board has approached Rene Haas, the chief executive of chip designer Arm, as part of the search. The report cites people familiar with the matter.

Haas joined Arm in 2013, the SoftBank-backed chip company, and before that spent seven years at Nvidia, where he held several roles including vice president of its computing products business. Nvidia has not confirmed the approach, and the board's statement suggests no candidate has been formally engaged.

Why Huang stepped down

Nvidia announced on Thursday that Huang would step down as chief executive after multiple reported affairs. One of these involved a woman whom several outlets reported is suspected of working for Chinese intelligence.

The company named chief financial officer Colette Kress as interim CEO and said it would look at both internal and external candidates for the permanent role.

Investigations and political scrutiny

On Tuesday, Nvidia said it had hired the law firm Wachtell Lipton to look into claims that Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation. The probes into his conduct are continuing.

Political pressure is also building. Three committees in the House of Representatives have asked Huang to appear for a closed-door briefing on 18 November. The Senate Banking Committee has separately requested that Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick testify, citing serious concerns about national security and reports that the company's top AI chips have ended up in China.

Investors react

Nvidia shares fell more than 2% on Friday as investors absorbed the news of Huang's departure and the prospect of ongoing investigations. The drop pushed the company's market value below $4 trillion.

The coming weeks will test how the market judges Kress's interim leadership and how quickly the board can move from selecting a search firm to naming a permanent successor.