Nvidia’s next CEO faces a test of trust after Huang’s exit

Huang had described his management style as open. “I spend all of my time being transparent,” he said at an NBA tech summit last year. Reports of affairs with a direct report, another employee and a client suspected by US intelligence officials of spying for China have put that claim under a spotlight. Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The company’s structure may complicate the transition. Huang ran Nvidia with a flat leadership hierarchy, worked from a conference room rather than a private office and had dozens of direct reports. Nvidia had no publicly disclosed succession plan; observers have said founder-led companies with few management layers can have a thin bench of potential successors.

Employees will want reassurance that the company remains in capable hands, said Kim Scott, a former Apple and Google executive and cofounder of Radical Candor. Many hold unvested stock options worth millions of dollars, she noted. The new leader must also keep daily operations on track while addressing the scrutiny around Huang’s exit. “Keeping people focused on the work while not pretending that the circus outside doesn’t exist is really, really hard to do,” said Katie Burke, chief operating officer of legal AI company Harvey.

Rebuilding confidence will take time, said Alison Fragale, an organizational psychologist and professor of organizational behavior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Some employees may be grieving Huang’s departure; others may feel betrayed or unsettled, particularly as family members ask about the scandal. Jessica Neal, a former Netflix chief talent officer, said the exit also demonstrates that high performance does not excuse violations of company standards. Making exceptions for star performers, she said, signals to employees what the company truly values.