After Huang's Exit, Trump Wants Apple's Tim Cook to Take Over Nvidia

What's going on

Nvidia, the company whose graphics chips power most of today's AI data centers, has suddenly lost its founder. On Thursday, November 12, 2026, Jensen Huang stepped down as president, chief executive and board member, effective immediately. Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and ran it for 33 years, turning a small supplier of gaming graphics cards into the world's most valuable chipmaker.

Just hours later, President Donald Trump weighed in on his platform Truth Social with a candidate of his own:

"Now that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man who can take his place – Tim Cook of Apple. A Legend replacing a Legend!"

According to Newsweek, Trump didn't say whether he had spoken to Cook or whether he knew if Nvidia's board was even considering him. Fortune India also stresses that there's no indication Cook has been approached or wants the job. TechCrunch noted dryly that whether Trump was serious or just firing off a spur-of-the-moment idea is "pure speculation."

Why Tim Cook, of all people?

On September 1, 2026, after 15 years, Cook handed the Apple CEO job to longtime hardware chief John Ternus. He's still active at Apple, though, as Executive Chairman. According to Apple, in that role he continues to manage relationships with governments around the world and handles international relations, including with China.

The case for Cook is obvious: he has already succeeded an outsized founder once. In 2011, he took over Apple from Steve Jobs in one of the most closely watched successions in corporate history. Trump isn't alone in floating the idea. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a leadership scholar at the Yale School of Management, argued in a Time op-ed on Wednesday that Cook belongs on the shortlist, citing his "unparalleled record of succeeding a larger-than-life founder." Tech analyst Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives & Co. went further, telling Newsweek: "We view Cook as the top candidate." He called him a "global tech leader and visionary who can step into Jensen's shoes."

Then there's politics. Nvidia sits at the center of the US-China tech race, and Washington restricts exports of advanced AI chips to Beijing. Newsweek argues that Cook's experience dealing with both Washington and Beijing could prove especially valuable here.

There's also a clear objection: Huang is an engineer who was deeply involved in Nvidia's technology and product strategy. Cook built his reputation on operations and supply chain management before becoming Apple's CEO. He's not a technology visionary in the Huang mold.

The interim chief: Colette Kress

Until a permanent successor is found, CFO Colette Kress is running the company. The 59-year-old joined Nvidia in September 2013 after finance roles at Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments, and she keeps her role as Executive Vice President and CFO in parallel. The board has launched a search for a permanent CEO and plans to consider both internal and external candidates. Board chair Harvey Jones said Kress has "a deep understanding of our business, our customers, our operations and our finances."

Opinions on her differ. Ives told CNBC she's a "Swiss Army knife": "Jensen didn't do anything without her." In his view, she functions more like a chief operating officer than just a CFO. The Information paints a different picture: Kress played an important role in Nvidia's rise and tried to rein in its riskiest bets, but she didn't make the big calls. Huang ran the company with total control, never set out a clear succession plan and, according to one insider, often "steamrolled" Kress when they disagreed. Susannah Streeter of investment platform Wealth Club told Reuters that Kress is seen as a "safe pair of hands" but lacks "global stature." Ives expects Kress to serve as interim chief for about a year, with the permanent CEO coming from outside.

Other names in the mix

Beyond Cook and Kress, plenty of names are circulating – though Fortune India makes clear this is not an official shortlist:

According to Fortune India, longer-term speculation also includes Huang's children Madison and Spencer and his son-in-law Nico Caprez, all of whom work at Nvidia.

Behind the resignation

The exit followed days of mounting pressure. On Sunday, Huang publicly apologized for being unfaithful to his wife. That came after reports of a relationship with a Chinese businesswoman whom US intelligence agencies consider a possible agent for Beijing; Nvidia opened an independent investigation. On Wednesday, the New York Times reported a second affair, with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare, who reported directly to Huang. Nvidia's resignation announcement didn't address the allegations and thanked Huang for his "immeasurable contributions."

Awkwardly, Trump had defended Huang as recently as Monday, saying Huang had "absolutely no idea" the person was a spy and would be "in good shape." Democrats Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren are now demanding that Huang testify before Congress despite his resignation. Schumer is publicly asking whether government officials were told not to investigate because of Trump's closeness to Huang, and what Trump knew when he invited Huang aboard Air Force One. According to Reuters, Brian Mast, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, expects Huang to testify next week.

The news hit the stock hard: shares fell as much as 14.3 percent on Thursday before recovering some of the losses, and according to ITHome, the company's market value briefly slipped below $4 trillion. CNBC reports the stock is heading for its sixth straight losing week, its longest streak since 2012 – partly due to broader worries about the AI buildout after Democrats' decisive win in the midterm elections. Nvidia still plans to report quarterly earnings on Tuesday as scheduled.

The bigger picture

Nvidia is to the AI industry what a power plant is to a city: almost every major model from OpenAI, Google, Meta or Anthropic is trained on Nvidia hardware. A leadership vacuum there affects far more than shareholders. That said, Trump's push is, for now, just a social media post. Nvidia's board picks the CEO, not the White House, and Cook hasn't commented. Still, a US president publicly meddling in a private company's leadership choice shows how strategically important Nvidia has become politically – especially in the chip conflict with China, which is also at the heart of the espionage allegations. Open questions remain: how much real authority Kress will have during the transition, whether the allegations against Huang will widen, and who will ultimately take over a company that for decades was built entirely around one person.