"Jensen Is God": How the "Huang Cult" Came to Be at Nvidia and What Will Happen to It Now

The sudden resignation of Nvidia’s CEO has laid bare the company’s internal politics and corporate governance, according to a major article in the Financial Times titled “The Fall of Jensen Huang.” The company’s founder wielded virtually “imperial power” over the company, which was difficult to challenge, according to the newspaper’s sources close to Nvidia.

“Jensen was the supreme deity at Nvidia,” said one of the company’s investors. “I have no idea who in the company is next in line in terms of ability. If they choose someone from outside the company, it will create a rift.”

Huang ran Nvidia like a “feudal system” with its own tangled dynastic intrigues, according to one of the publication’s sources. The company’s founder appointed his daughter, Madison Huang—who joined the company as an intern about six years ago—and her husband, Nico Capreza, to influential positions. Huang’s son, Spencer, also holds a leadership position.

At the same time, several current and former Nvidia employees described Huang’s daughter as difficult to work with: she drew criticism for effectively serving as her father’s chief of staff, even though she formally held the position of senior director of marketing.

"The level of arrogance, the sense of invincibility and untouchability characteristic of Jensen, his family, and some executives" made working at the company "unbearable," said one employee.

Despite the chaos within the company and the plunge in its stock price, some Nvidia employees see the situation as an opportunity to reset the corporate culture and implement management structures better suited to a company of this size, the FT reports.

Huang had 60 direct reports, which gave him enormous influence over every decision in the company while ensuring that no one was in a position to challenge him, the FT notes.

"It's impossible to convey just how much of a cult following this place has become," said one of the sources who had worked with Nvidia. According to him, this was evident, among other things, in the fact that the company’s general counsel, Tim Teter, wears a leather jacket, emulating Huang’s style.

"Jensen is a god, and that's exactly how he's worshipped," the source added.

“Jensen was CEO for 30 years. Many rose through the ranks alongside him, became wealthy, and were therefore very loyal. But then they all started to retire,” added another source who spoke to the FT.

“Now that all this has come to light (and that’s not even everything), I’m reminded of a children’s song: ‘The king’s entire cavalry and the king’s entire army couldn’t catch Shaltai-Boltai,’” he said.

Huang himself, it seems, initially expected to keep his job even after admitting to the breach. A day after Nvidia launched an internal investigation, Huang—to the surprise of his employees—gathered them for a meeting to plan the annual presentation in Washington. “This will be the best event in history,” he told the team, according to sources.

The FT describes this as an “attempt to create the appearance that ‘everything is business as usual’—typical of Huang—on the part of a company CEO who is fighting to save himself, his family, and a company that, until recently, was the most valuable in the world.” One of Huang’s colleagues called the experience “surreal,” the publication reports.

At the same time, in private, faced with the prospect of losing his job and leaving the company he founded in disgrace, Huang became sullen, according to the FT. According to some of the newspaper’s sources, he openly mused in conversations with colleagues that his relationship with his wife might now be more important than retaining his position as CEO.

Nvidia declined to comment. Jensen Huang and representatives of his family did not respond to the FT’s request for comment.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor