"No One Is Irreplaceable": What Major Investors Are Saying About Nvidia Without Huang
None of the asset managers surveyed by CNBC are selling the company's shares at this time
Major investors believe that Jensen Huang's departure poses a serious risk to Nvidia, but does not undermine its competitive advantages or growth prospects / Photo: Robert Way/Shutterstock.com
Major investors are confident that Jensen Huang’s resignation has not undermined Nvidia’s prospects as one of the main beneficiaries of the AI boom, according to the Financial Times. Some shareholders, however, fear “painful” consequences from the departure of the company’s co-founder. Optimists believe that Nvidia’s success is not solely attributable to Huang’s leadership, that its relationships with customers and suppliers have not been harmed, and that the impact of AI on the business is just beginning.
Huang embodied “key person risk” (the business’s dependence on a single individual), according to one of Nvidia’s ten largest shareholders. The FT does not disclose the name of this investor.
Nvidia is worth trillions of dollars not because Huang led it, but thanks to its business performance, according to Matt Whiteler, head of late-stage venture investments at the asset management firm Wellington Management. He noted that the company’s revenue last quarter totaled $100 billion, a 100% increase year-over-year. “Nvidia’s roadmap for the next two to three years is already set,” says Whitelaw. Whoever replaces Huang will not affect the product release schedule for that period, he added. The portfolio managed by Whitelaw does not include Nvidia shares, but Wellington as a whole is among Nvidia’s major shareholders.
When evaluating Nvidia following Huang’s resignation, investors should consider its competitive position, emphasizes Stephen Yu, manager of the Blue Whale fund, which is backed by billionaire Peter Hargreaves. According to him, the company’s strong relationships with customers and suppliers “remain intact.” The scale of these positions is reflected in its market share: in 2025, Nvidia accounted for 80–90% of AI accelerator sales in monetary terms, according to the research project Silicon Analysts.
The impact of Huang’s departure on the AI industry as a whole will be limited, according to a portfolio manager at one of Nvidia’s major shareholders (the FT does not name either him or the shareholder). “This is a human story, but a private one that pertains specifically to Nvidia,” he says. “We’re still in the early stages of AI’s impact on business,” the manager added.
As far as investors’ bets on AI as a whole are concerned, Huang’s departure changes little, and for Nvidia shareholders, it is merely an “unfortunate episode,” according to Nancy Tengler, chief investment officer at Laffer Tengler Investments. “Here’s what I’ve learned during my time on this planet: no one is irreplaceable,” Bloomberg quotes her as saying.
On November 12, when Nvidia’s stock fell 14% at the opening bell but then recovered most of its losses, CNBC surveyed participants on its list of leading U.S. money managers. Of the 122 companies and professionals surveyed, 27 responded: 18 are keeping their Nvidia holdings in client portfolios unchanged, three are increasing their positions, and six do not hold the company’s stock. No one reported selling shares—“yet,” the network notes. Factors that could prompt a reassessment of their approach to Nvidia include the outlook for AI demand (cited by 10 respondents), the stock’s valuation (nine), and the company’s management or its forecasts (eight).
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
