Jensen Huang delivers a keynote speech at Nvidia’s GTC event in Berlin on October 21, 2026.
Markus Schreiber/AP
hide title
Markus Schreiber/AP
An alleged intelligence scandal, reports of multiple extramarital affairs and the abrupt departure of one of Silicon Valley’s most influential CEOs. It’s been a whirlwind week for Nvidia and the artificial intelligence industry.
Jensen Huang helped finance the AI boom. Now, after 33 years at the helm of the leading AI company, he is out, leaving questions about the future of an industry that has relied heavily on his company’s financial backing. Longtime CFO Colette Kress has taken over as interim CEO.
“Nvidia has basically put itself in a position of being a bank, underwriting everything,” said Gary Marcus, a cognitive scientist and longtime AI researcher. morning edition.
He was describing circular financing: Nvidia invests in artificial intelligence companies that then use the money to buy Nvidia chips. OpenAI, Anthropic and CoreWeave have relied on that funding, he said, even as many AI companies struggle to turn a profit.
“Jensen was kind of a swordsman, willing to make bets of any size,” Marcus said.
Unlike Huang, whose background is in engineering, Kress comes from a financial background and appears more cautious about making big financial bets, which could change how Nvidia supports the AI industry overall.
Kress will also have to deal with possible federal and congressional investigations into Nvidia’s business dealings involving China, leaving it to her to “clean up that mess,” Marcus said.
He said lawmakers need answers about what information Huang may have shared with Alice Huang and why Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had not intervened sooner.
“Why didn’t Lutnick close part of this when they asked him to?” Marco said.
Listen to the full interview by clicking the blue button above.
The radio interview was edited by Simone Popperl and the web copy was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
