Colette Kress, Nvidia’s interim chief executive, has served as the company’s chief financial officer. Kevin Roose, NPR host Gods of machines podcast, talks to Scott Detrow about what to expect from her.
Transcription
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
With Huang gone as CEO and his CFO, Colette Kress, stepping in, people have a lot of questions. Kress is relatively unknown to the public. So for some insight, we now turn to Kevin Roose, co-host of NPR’s Machine Gods podcast. Hello, Kevin.
KEVIN ROOSE, BYLINE: Hi, how are you doing?
DETROW: Before we get to Kress, I just want to start with that big unanswered question that John was talking about there. Some companies that everyone sees as one-man businesses (I’m thinking of Apple and Steve Jobs) do quite well when that CEO leaves or disappears from the scene, and they continue to grow. Others really fall apart. What are you thinking with NVIDIA? To what extent was Huang really a part of this in terms of what comes next?
ROOSE: Well, he was essential to the success of the company and took it from being kind of a specialized hardware manufacturer, making chips for video games, to one of the largest companies in the world. And it did so largely by betting on AI and other areas of intensive computational work. These chips that NVIDIA makes, these GPUs, turned out to be the essential ingredient of modern AI, and Jensen Huang really was there every step of the way. Now, could it be replaced? Could the company function well without it? We’ll see. But I think a lot of people are nervous because it wasn’t just his scientific acumen and experience that made the company work, but also his relationships. He really had deep relationships that lasted years with people like Elon Musk and Sam Altman…
DETROW: Yes.
ROOSE: …The people who are driving the rise of AI. And that’s why people are a little worried about what will happen when he and his Rolodex disappear.
DETROW: Then Kress intervenes. What should we know about his background?
ROOSE: Well, she’s a lifer. She joined NVIDIA in September 2013. She has been CFO and was there throughout this entire transition from a video game graphics company to an artificial intelligence company. He’s been on NVIDIA calls. Investors know about it, but it’s more of a mystery to the rest of the AI ecosystem. She is neither a household name nor a product visionary. And that was Jensen’s role. He wasn’t just the CEO, he was really the cheerleader of this entire industry.
DETROW: Yes. There is a lot at stake here financially in terms of the stock market in general. There are geopolitical risks in terms of how much national defense is built. For example, NVIDIA chips are powering wars right now, literally. I mean, what do you think their top priorities should be in this time of crisis?
ROOSE: Well, I think the first thing you have to do is just keep people calm, right? Clients, employees, investors. People are already worried about the momentum shifting towards AMD or another rival. The second would be money. I mean, NVIDIA has been acting as a kind of bank for the entire AI industry. It has agreements with the largest AI labs, including hundreds of billions of dollars in commitments and circular financing agreements. And Colette Kress signed many of those agreements, but now she has to decide whether to continue writing the checks. And then I think he will have to face a lot of investigations. There will be a board investigation, an FBI investigation. I imagine a group of congressional subcommittees and committees will investigate what was happening with NVIDIA chip sales in China. So I think you can expect more scrutiny.
DETROW: A lot of attention this week has been on the complete lack of a succession plan at NVIDIA and the power Huang had. You know, there’s no succession panel, like I said. The board of directors did not have a president until now. Did anyone raise these concerns before this crisis point where this is a pretty big company and we need a plan?
ROOSE: Not out loud, if they did. Jensen Huang was very open in saying that he did not believe in succession planning. I had all these direct reports. It’s a very unconventional company in its org chart, and that was fine with investors for many years because the stock went up and up and no one wanted to put pressure on the founder or upset the apple cart. This was despite the fact that Jensen Huang didn’t have what many other tech CEOs who came later had, which were these kinds of special shares that would protect them from being fired by the board. He didn’t have any special voting control, and that’s why the board was able to fire him.
DETROW: Kevin, we have about 30 seconds. Explain to me some of the most important questions you will be looking for in the future.
ROOSE: I’m looking for the regulatory response to this in Washington. NVIDIA, and Jensen Huang specifically, were driving many of the Trump administration’s policies on things like export controls on chip sales. So I’ll be watching to see if, without him in the driver’s seat, the company changes its stance and says, well, actually, maybe we don’t want to sell our most powerful chips in China.
DETROW: Kevin Roose, co-host of the Machine Gods podcast on NPR. Thank you so much.
ROSA: Thank you.
DETROW: And if you want to better understand the people and technology behind AI, you can check out the Machine Gods tab on the NPR app, where you can find all of the show’s episodes and interviews.
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