NVIDIA Board Weighs Removing CEO Jensen Huang as Shares Slide

NVIDIA’s board was meeting late on November 11, 2026 to decide whether to oust founder and CEO Jensen Huang, Reuters reported, citing a source familiar with the matter. Shares fell more than 8% in extended trading after The Wall Street Journal first reported that the company was preparing to fire him.

The meeting contrasted with the position the board took in NVIDIA’s November 8, 2026 statement, which announced an independent investigation into reporting that Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence effort while expressing confidence in him and his leadership team. A committee of independent directors, assisted by outside independent counsel, was to oversee the inquiry. The board said it had no reason to believe national security or NVIDIA secrets had been compromised, and Huang committed to cooperating.

NVIDIA’s bylaws allow directors to remove Huang “with or without cause” by a majority vote. The 11-member board considers every director except Huang independent. NVIDIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the meeting.

Succession and Control

Huang’s departure would leave NVIDIA with no obvious successor at the roughly $4 trillion company he co-founded and led for more than three decades. His roughly 3.6% stake and dozens of direct reports underscore the direct control he maintains over the organization.

Bloomberg reported that the board had been working with an outside firm to identify potential replacements, citing a person familiar with the situation. Armina Rosenberg, portfolio manager and co-founder of NVIDIA shareholder Minotaur Capital, described Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as the natural interim choice. Kress has held that role for more than a decade, but Rosenberg said the larger question was who would lead NVIDIA’s technology roadmap over the longer term.

Market Reaction Across AI Stocks

NVIDIA’s market-value loss since the investigation announcement would reach about $600 billion if the after-hours decline held. “The market is starting to price Nvidia without its founder as the likely outcome, not a tail risk,” Rosenberg said.

The wider market reaction was uneven. Nasdaq futures fell 1%, Micron slipped nearly 2% and CoreWeave dropped 6%, while rival chipmakers AMD and Broadcom rose 4% and 3%, respectively. In Asia, Samsung Electronics gained about 1% and SK Hynix dipped nearly 1%.

Investors and analysts said near-term demand for NVIDIA’s chips was unlikely to drop. They saw greater risk among companies backed by NVIDIA, largely customers building data centers that will use its chips. Nick Ferres, chief investment officer at Vantage Point Asset Management in Singapore, pointed to the exposure created when a supplier finances its customers, saying a slowdown could shift a boom into a bust.

NVIDIA is scheduled to report quarterly results on November 17, 2026, giving investors a financial update while the leadership question remains unresolved. The succession decision reaches beyond the chief executive role: it affects who will set the technology roadmap and how investors assess the financing relationships around NVIDIA’s AI data-center customers.