The CEO of NVIDIA, Jensen Huang, has resigned after a messy couple of days since it was revealed that he had an affair with a suspected Chinese spy on Sunday. With the company now looking for a replacement, Apple's Chief Hardware Officer Johny Srouji could be considered a candidate.

NVIDIA's board of directors and now former CEO Jensen Huang released statements to the company's newsroom on Sunday afternoon, revealing that Huang had had an affair with a suspected Chinese spy, posing a potential national security threat.

The board announced that it was conducting an investigation, which has now led to the CEO’s resignation. It is unclear if Huang made the decision, or if the board gave him the opportunity to step down much more honourably than if he were fired.

NVIDIA's Chief Financial Officer, Colette Kress, has been named interim CEO until a permanent replacement is found.

Apple's Chief Hardware Officer

A potential permanent replacement could be Apple Chief Hardware Officer Johny Srouji, who has been at Apple since 2008, originally joining to lead development of Apple Silicon on the iPhone. This led to the debut of the first-ever A-series Apple Silicon chip, the A4, in the original iPad that released in 2010.

Since then, Apple has expanded its Silicon, releasing a range of chip lines for different products including:

  • H-series for AirPods
  • M-series for Mac & iPad
  • R-series for Apple Vision Pro
  • S-series for Apple Watch

This has all happened under Srouji, who was made Apple Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies in 2015.

He held this role up until April of this year, when he was promoted to Chief Hardware Officer following the previous hardware chief’s promotion to CEO.

Srouji has already been rumoured to be considering his future at Apple. Bloomberg reported he was considering leaving just before he received a promotion to Chief Hardware Officer, which could have been a way to encourage him to stay at the company.

However, if he is approached to become CEO of one of the world's largest tech companies that specialises in silicon, it may be a hard pass. This would be a major loss for Apple, which has made huge advancements in silicon with Srouji leading development, including the transition to Apple Silicon on the Mac which helped revitalise the product category.

However, Apple is currently amid a transition to in-house modems, which Bloomberg has reported Srouji would like to oversee the full completion of this project before thinking about leaving.

This makes it a difficult situation to predict, as on one hand Srouji is loyal to Apple having built its in-house Silicon teams over the past 17 years, but an opportunity to lead a multi-trillion dollar company as CEO does not come up very often.

This could also be his opportunity to become a CEO, as he might have recently missed out on becoming Apple's CEO following the transition just a few months ago.

Could Tim Cook also be in the running?

The BBC has reported that Tim Cook could be a potential candidate as NVIDIA CEO.

Apple's former CEO stepped down a couple of months ago after 15 years at the helm, and is currently Executive Chairman of the board. The BBC’s reporting suggests that "as someone familiar with managing global supply chains" Cook would be a suitable candidate.

He would undoubtedly be able to take on the role, but this is highly unlikely. Cook has been at Apple for almost three decades, joining the company in 1998 after being convinced by Steve Jobs to leave IBM.

He served as CEO for 15 years, transforming it into the world's biggest company. Just this year, he managed a very careful transition out of the role, but still holds lots of responsibility at Apple, including representing the company at events across the world.

A move to NVIDIA would not make sense for Cook, who is still a vital part of Apple's leadership team and remains the public face of the company.

Final Thoughts

I wouldn't expect Tim Cook to leave Apple any time soon, but Johny Srouji is a potential candidate. If offered the opportunity, there is a good chance he would accept the role.

While that would be a major loss for Apple, the company will still have the silicon and hardware teams to keep moving forward, and Srouji's second-in-command would likely take over with lots of experience with these technologies.

2026 could be a pivotal year for the tech industry, as two of the largest tech companies have appointed new CEOs, Apple's long time silicon chief could be about to jump ships, and Apple now holds a market lead of over one trillion dollars.