British chipmaker CEO Rene Haas approached by Nvidia board to replace Jensen Huang: Report

Nvidia's board has approached Arm Holdings chief executive Rene Haas as a potential successor to Jensen Huang, who stepped down from the chipmaker on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a separate report said some Nvidia employees were pushing for Huang's return.

Huang's exit followed revelations of extramarital affairs, including one involving a suspected Chinese spy, pushing the chipmaker into a crisis.

Haas has emerged as a potential candidate following Huang's departure. He spent seven formative years at Nvidia, rising to vice president and general manager of its computing products business, before joining Arm in 2013.

He is among several candidates being considered, although the Financial Times reported on Friday that there is no guarantee he will be offered the job or accept it. reported. Nvidia finance chief Colette Kress is currently serving as interim CEO.

Nvidia's board said it was in the process of selecting a search firm for the CEO role and had not formally engaged any potential candidates.

"Any speculation regarding individual candidates, whether internal or external, is premature," the board said in a statement.

Also Read: 'Quite arrogant', family man persona an act: Jensen Huang's biographer after Nvidia CEO's exit

Before Huang's resignation, a longtime Nvidia engineer had urged the board in an internal post to consider employee sentiment before taking any action, Wired reported late on Thursday.

The post has since attracted more than 1,600 comments, with several employees urging the board to find a way to bring Huang back, the technology news platform said, citing internal correspondence it reviewed. Nvidia has about 42,000 employees worldwide.

Billionaire Elon Musk separately said on X that a petition was underway to reinstate Huang and that he would sign it. It was not immediately clear whether Musk was referring to the internal effort reported by Wired.

Nvidia declined to comment on the Wired report or Musk's post, while Arm also declined to comment. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

Haas became Arm's CEO in 2022 and oversaw the company's Nasdaq listing in 2023. Arm designs processor architectures and licenses them to other companies that develop chip designs. Its historical strength has been in mobile phones, although it is expanding into computers.