Three Israeli executives tipped as possible successors to Nvidia's Jensen Huang, local media reports

Three Israeli technology executives have surfaced as potential candidates to take over Nvidia following the resignation of Jensen Huang, who led the artificial intelligence chipmaker for more than three decades, according to Israeli media reports.

Huang's departure was announced on 12 November, two days before this report, and took effect immediately. Nvidia's board has named chief financial officer Colette Kress as interim chief executive while the search for a permanent replacement gets underway, and the company has said it will weigh both internal and external candidates.

Israeli media outlets have pointed to three names: Michael Kagan, who currently serves as Nvidia's chief technology officer; Eyal Waldman, the co-founder and former chief executive of Israeli networking firm Mellanox; and Johny Srouji, Apple's chief hardware officer.

Kagan co-founded Mellanox in 1999 and became part of Nvidia when it bought the company in 2020 in a deal worth about $6.9bn. As chief technology officer, he has concentrated on technologies that enable thousands of processors to communicate inside large data centres.

Waldman, the other Mellanox co-founder, ran the company as chief executive until the acquisition. Unlike Kagan, he is no longer a member of Nvidia's management, but the Israeli outlet Ynet has reported that he figures in the succession discussions nonetheless.

Srouji has been with Apple since 2008 and is regarded as one of the central figures behind its in-house chip efforts. He oversaw the development of the processors powering Apple's products, including the chips that drove the company's shift away from Intel processors to Apple Silicon.

Huang's exit came after a string of reports about his personal relationships, including an alleged affair with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman who US intelligence agencies reportedly suspect of acting as an intelligence asset for Beijing. China has rejected the espionage allegation. Huang admitted being unfaithful to his wife in an email to employees, in which he apologised to his family and colleagues, and Nvidia later announced an investigation into whether he had been the target of a foreign intelligence operation.

Media reports indicate Nvidia's board had already been reviewing Huang's position before he stepped down. The company has not publicly stated that the reported relationships caused his departure, and it has not established that company secrets or national security information were compromised.

The affair has also cast a spotlight on Nvidia's business in China, where its advanced AI chips sit at the heart of US export-control policy. One company facing scrutiny is Megaspeed, which reports have examined over its possible role in helping Chinese firms acquire restricted Nvidia processors. Nvidia said it had "no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised," while noting that its internal investigation would examine the available information.

Huang's departure leaves Nvidia navigating a leadership transition at a moment when its chips are central to the global AI race and its operations are increasingly caught up in tensions between Washington and Beijing.