Nvidia Co-Founder Jensen Huang Discusses Return as Washington Pushes for Outsider CEO

The report puts Huang's possible return in front of a board that is under heavy pressure. Nvidia's directors are running a search for a permanent chief executive, and the Trump administration is publicly urging them to look outside the company. The decision rests with the board. Huang co-founded Nvidia but does not hold a controlling stake.

According to accounts of the FT story, one of Huang's allies has been gathering Silicon Valley executives to press the board to reinstate him. Nvidia has not said anything publicly about a return. Chief financial officer Colette Kress has run the company as interim chief executive since Huang left.

Huang resigned after revelations about his relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, whom US intelligence officials suspect of spying for China. Megaspeed is suspected of diverting Nvidia chips to China in breach of US export controls. Beijing has denied the spying allegations, and Megaspeed has said Alice Huang left the company in August 2025.

Any campaign to bring Huang back would run into open opposition in Washington. On the same day the FT story appeared, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called for a "dramatic shakeup" at Nvidia and said the board should pick its next chief executive from outside the company, CNBC reported. In a Fox News interview, Bessent said scrutiny should extend beyond Huang to other executives and to the company's compliance with export rules.

"If this were a bank and they hadn't complied like this, the OCC would be in there right now, and a lot of the executives would be removed," Bessent said, referring to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. He also questioned whether Nvidia had pushed "seemingly illicit sales to goose their revenues and their earnings", and pointed to a jump in reported Singapore revenue at a time when China sales were falling. Nvidia stopped reporting Singapore revenue separately in November 2025. At the time it said that grouping sales by customer headquarters rather than billing address gave a more accurate picture.

Congress is also pressing. Senate Banking Committee chairman Tim Scott has written to Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick asking both to testify publicly. House Republicans have asked Huang for a closed-door briefing on his relationship with Alice Huang.

The FT has separately reported that Nvidia's board approached Arm chief executive Rene Haas as a possible successor. Nvidia has not publicly named any candidates. On the prediction market Polymarket, traders gave about a 5% chance that Huang rejoins Nvidia by November 30, according to Crypto Briefing.

The timing is awkward for the company. Nvidia reports quarterly results on Tuesday, November 17, its first since Huang's departure. Investors will be listening for anything on the leadership search, the internal review of the Megaspeed relationship and exposure to tighter export controls, as well as the usual guidance on data centre demand.

Bessent has given the board 10 days to answer questions about whether shell companies channelled Nvidia processors to China. That deadline, the earnings call and the congressional testimony requests all fall within the next few weeks, and each will shape how much room the board has to consider bringing Huang back.