Bloomberg Talks · · 16 min

Instant Reaction: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Ousted by Nvidia Board

With Anurag Rana, Mandeep Singh

Summary

Bloomberg Talks reacted to the news that Nvidia's board ousted CEO Jensen Huang. Mandeep Singh argued that Nvidia's execution remains strong, citing a chip launch cadence of roughly every six months and a latest architecture about five times better in throughput than Blackwell. He expected a lengthy CEO search, with CFO Colette Kress running the company for one or two quarters, and noted that Huang's combined technical and ecosystem and supply-chain strength, including ties with TSMC, is hard to replace; Ian Buck was named as the internal front-runner with strong technical credentials. Anurag Rana focused on competition, arguing Nvidia's large lead in AI accelerators is narrowing as Amazon, Microsoft and Google push their own chips, which could benefit hyperscale cloud customers. He ranked Nvidia first, Google second, then Amazon and Microsoft on AI chip technology by customer demand, noting Microsoft still must buy Nvidia chips while moving first-party workloads such as Copilot onto its Maia chips.

Key takeaways

  • Mandeep Singh (uncertain on NVIDIA): Nvidia's CEO search may run long, with the CFO interim one or two quarters; Jensen is hard to replace.
  • Mandeep Singh (bullish on NVIDIA): Nvidia's six-month chip cadence and five-times throughput gain over Blackwell show commendable execution.
  • Anurag Rana (bullish on Alphabet): Google is far ahead in custom AI chips, second only to Nvidia, with its own systems due next year.
  • Anurag Rana (neutral on Microsoft): Microsoft's Maia chips trail in demand, but Copilot workloads are quietly shifting onto them.

What was said, by company and theme

4 views from 2 speakers. Every quote is checked against the episode's transcript (how).

NVIDIA

Across the shows: 116 speakers in other episodes, 99 bullish and 71 bearish calls, past 30 days

  • Mandeep Singh · Bloomberg IntelligenceUncertain

    Nvidia's CEO search may run long, with the CFO interim one or two quarters; Jensen is hard to replace.

    Singh expects the CEO search to take much longer, with CFO Colette Kress running things for maybe one or two quarters. Jensen Huang's dual strength in technology and in the ecosystem and supply chain is rare. Relationships with TSMC and suppliers, which let Nvidia ramp capacity fast, are hard for any successor to manage. Ian Buck, the front-runner internally, has the technical credentials. A technical leader would help calm investor anxiety, but the ecosystem test is serious.

    “I wouldn't be surprised if they take much longer in terms of the CEO search and have Colette kind of take care of things for maybe one or two quarters.”at 3:43

  • Mandeep Singh · Bloomberg IntelligenceBullish

    Nvidia's six-month chip cadence and five-times throughput gain over Blackwell show commendable execution.

    Nvidia has launched new chip versions almost every six months. Its latest architecture is about five times better in throughput than Blackwell. That lets Nvidia iterate and stay ahead of rivals, which explains its large GPU market share. Singh calls this execution very commendable.

    “what NVIDIA has done is they have launched new versions of their chips almost at a six month cadence... their latest architecture, which is five times better in terms of throughput than their Blackwell architecture... is very commendable in terms of execution.”at 5:48

Alphabet

Across the shows: 72 speakers in other episodes, 64 bullish and 49 bearish calls, past 30 days

  • Anurag Rana · Bloomberg IntelligenceBullish

    Google is far ahead in custom AI chips, second only to Nvidia, with its own systems due next year.

    Rana ranks Google second on AI chip technology, behind Nvidia and ahead of Amazon and Microsoft, based on customer demand. Google is far ahead in custom AI silicon. It is trying to build its own systems by the end of next year. Rana expects the competition to get very tough over the next few years.

    “Google's obviously far ahead in that game, and they are trying to come up with their own systems by the end of next year.”at 12:57

Microsoft

Across the shows: 45 speakers in other episodes, 55 bullish and 8 bearish calls, past 30 days

  • Anurag Rana · Bloomberg IntelligenceNeutral

    Microsoft's Maia chips trail in demand, but Copilot workloads are quietly shifting onto them.

    Rana ranks Nvidia first in AI chip technology, then Google, Amazon and Microsoft, based on customer demand. Nobody is rushing to buy Microsoft's Maia capacity, so Microsoft is forced to buy Nvidia chips for now. Microsoft has started moving its first-party apps onto Maia. That covers Copilot and any other AI workload running in the background, before customers become comfortable with it.

    “But Microsoft has started to change their own internal first party apps with [Maia] chips, which means if you are running Copilot or for that matter, any other app that runs AI workloads.”at 13:29

Across the shows

What other episodes Chorus covered said about the same companies in the 30 days up to this one.

  • NVIDIA116 speakers · 99 bullish, 71 bearish calls
  • Alphabet72 speakers · 64 bullish, 49 bearish calls
  • Microsoft45 speakers · 55 bullish, 8 bearish calls

Topics

  • CEO succession
  • chip product cadence
  • custom AI chip competition

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