Jensen Huang stepped down as Nvidia chief executive on Thursday, sending ripples through Israel, a nation that has long viewed the chipmaker as a second home.
The semiconductor giant has underpinned local economic forecasts for years. Intel, Microsoft and numerous homegrown startups run a significant portion of their research and development in the country. Yet Nvidia holds a firm grip on artificial intelligence because its graphics processing units are central to training large language models. Many wonder how much a leadership shake-up will alter that dynamic.
Huang drove the company to buy Israeli chipmaker Mellanox for $6.9 billion in 2019. He used the firm as the base for Nvidia’s largest research and development facility outside the United States. Plans were also made to construct a multibillion-dollar campus in northern Israel.
“Jensen brought Nvidia to Israel with the acquisition of Mellanox, so there is a strong positive sentiment towards Nvidia and Jensen in Israel’s tech community,” Pavel Gurvich told TechCrunch. Gurvich is a repeat cybersecurity entrepreneur.
More than 6,000 locals work for Nvidia. The bigger question is whether the company will stay as committed to Israel with someone else at the helm. Investors and local observers alike are watching the line of succession closely.
Those hoping the company remains focused in Israel may face disappointment. In a 2023 interview that is now circulating on X, interim CEO Colette Kress stated that as Nvidia’s CFO, she typically started her day with Israel meetings before continuing to California.
Kress may not remain in charge long term. Names floated for the role include two Israelis, Apple’s Johny Srouji and Nvidia’s Michael Kagan. They are not at the top of the still tentative list.
Regardless of who is chosen, Huang’s successor will likely have less of a grip on Nvidia and the wider tech industry. Investors do not believe that would cause demand for Nvidia’s product to fade.
Yanai Oron, a general partner at Vertex Ventures Israel, noted that slower decisions at Nvidia could give competitors an opening. But if that uncertainty also slows AI spending, challengers could end up with a bigger share of a smaller opportunity.
Nvidia has accounted for a vast share of spending in the global AI industry. Under Huang’s leadership, the company used its cash reserves to invest massively across the spectrum, in both companies and its own next-generation chips.
Such an empire may not fall with its architect’s ouster, but it seems less likely to become a full-on monopoly. Adi Levanon, a founder and managing partner at Selah Ventures, said Huang’s departure does not dismantle Nvidia’s technology or ecosystem. It could give competitors more room to shape what comes next.
Global companies are now deploying increasingly demanding AI agents into their workflows. This has generated interest and venture capital for developers of AI-specific chips and inference software that could compete with Nvidia.
“These challengers now have a window to prove a different approach delivers better economics; a leadership change alone won’t win them the business,” Levanon said.
What it means
For people making things, the shift means Nvidia’s dominance is not guaranteed to last. Competitors with alternative chips or inference software have a chance to gain market share if they can demonstrate better economics. A change in leadership at Nvidia does not automatically mean existing products will stop working or that API behaviour will change.
