The post-Jensen era: Four major threats to Nvidia, Wall Street and Israel
Nvidia is facing questions over its China business, its vast investment commitments and the future of its AI ecosystem. A change in leadership could also have consequences for the company's 6,000 employees in Israel and its ambitious local expansion plans.
The “cockroach theory” often holds true: when you spot one, there are probably more. It is no coincidence that Nvidia is moving quickly to manage the fallout from Jensen Huang’s departure. The company has every reason to prevent further damaging information from emerging. Now that three such incidents have come to light, they have lost some of their novelty, and it is highly likely that more revelations will follow. Nvidia’s greater concern may be that the disclosures will extend beyond internal disagreements and expose problems with its business practices.
Just this past weekend, The Wall Street Journal published accounts from inside Nvidia’s boardroom, revealing that all was not perfect within the empire of AI chips that now dominates the world. Colette Kress, Huang’s longtime CFO and trusted right-hand, reportedly frequently disagreed with his business practices. Her appointment as interim CEO raises questions about whether Nvidia will continue along the path Huang set, even if a permanent successor is eventually appointed. Moreover, given what has already emerged, and what may come to light in the coming months, including through Huang’s own testimony before Congress, it is far from certain that such a continuation would even be possible.
Nvidia, which under Huang’s leadership helped ignite the AI revolution, is entering a new era. The transition could have dramatic repercussions across multiple fronts, from technology stocks to the Israeli economy. What are the four major risks facing Nvidia and the wider AI industry in the post-Jensen era?
1. Facing a future without the Chinese market
The most immediate risk concerns Nvidia itself. Over the past week, reports have emerged suggesting that the GPU giant may have circumvented restrictions on selling chips to China, whether intentionally or inadvertently. If the allegations are substantiated, Nvidia could face even tighter restrictions and oversight. This comes amid a broader political push to regulate the rapid development of AI more closely. A tougher regulatory environment could constrain the company’s operations and slow the extraordinary growth it has enjoyed in recent years.
There is also a risk that Nvidia could lose some of the people responsible for its technological success. Roughly 70% of its workforce have reportedly become millionaires as a result of the stock’s dramatic rise over the past few years. Yet many employees are said to have stayed not simply for the financial rewards, but because of the technical challenges and their admiration for Huang. His departure could prompt some of the engineers and other key employees behind Nvidia’s core technological advances to leave as well, potentially following their former boss into his next venture.
2. Is the well running dry? The risk to the AI funding ecosystem
A second danger looms over the entire circular economy underpinning the AI revolution. Much has been written about the risks inherent in this ecosystem, but Huang’s departure represents an additional source of uncertainty. Nvidia has effectively become the “bank of AI,” helping ensure that companies across the industry continue buying its expensive GPU chips. Its concentration of power and control over the ecosystem have allowed Huang to influence the fortunes of other players, deciding who gets chips first, who has to wait and who gets none at all.
It is now emerging that much of this ecosystem was managed personally by Huang, through relationships he had cultivated with other industry leaders. His son-in-law had also recently joined him in this effort. Meanwhile, Kress, the CFO who has now taken over as interim CEO, had reportedly begun voicing opposition to parts of this financial strategy.
The scale of Nvidia’s commitments is considerable. The company invested $30 billion in OpenAI and committed to investing an additional $100 billion. It also committed $10 billion to Anthropic, invested $5 billion in Intel and put $2 billion each into prominent “neocloud” providers Nebius and CoreWeave, with a further $6 billion commitment to the latter. This is only a partial list.
Nvidia has also become one of the most active investors in major startup funding rounds, outspending established venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia and Lightspeed. Since the beginning of 2026, it has participated in 53 funding rounds worth more than $100 million each.
A new CEO may be far less willing than Huang to deploy vast sums of capital into other companies, particularly when those investments also help strengthen demand for Nvidia’s own products. If the company pulls back, the funding ecosystem that has developed around it could begin to unravel. Smaller, early-stage companies, including emerging cloud providers, would be particularly vulnerable. A broader pullback could also slow the pace of the AI revolution itself.
3. A risk to the AI trade: Even good news could be bad news
AI-related stocks, which have driven much of Wall Street’s gains over the past three years, have shown signs of weakness and volatility for more than a month. The uncertainty surrounding Nvidia’s leadership transition adds another layer of risk. In the short term, heightened volatility is likely.
Until now, investors could look to strong Nvidia earnings as a potential source of reassurance for the broader market. But the next investor call, the first without Huang at the helm, will take place under very different circumstances. Even excellent results could be met with skepticism. Investors may ask whether the company can sustain its extraordinary performance without the person who became the public face and driving force of the AI economy.
Nvidia alone accounts for more than 7% of the S&P 500 and over 8% of the Nasdaq, giving any major shift in its fortunes the potential to reverberate across the market. The companies it has funded are also part of the broader ecosystem whose valuations and prospects are tied to the AI investment cycle.
The experience of Intel offers a warning about how quickly sentiment can shift when investors lose confidence in a company's leadership and strategic direction.
4. Why Israelis should be concerned
Israel, too, has reason to pay close attention. Huang has shown a strong affinity for Israel and its engineers, helping establish the country as Nvidia’s second-most important R&D hub after the United States. The company currently employs approximately 6,000 people in Tel Aviv and Yokneam and plans to expand its local presence with a massive new campus, for which it acquired land earlier this year.
Nvidia has become a major economic force in Israel. Its importance was underscored about three weeks ago when the Governor of the Bank of Israel presented two economic scenarios: one that included Nvidia’s contribution and another that excluded it. The projections showed economic growth of 5.6% with Nvidia, compared with 3.4% without it.
Will Nvidia’s next CEO continue expanding the company’s Israeli operations with the same enthusiasm as Huang? The experience of Intel in recent years offers a cautionary comparison. A change in leadership and corporate priorities can have significant consequences for a company's local operations, even when those operations have long been considered strategically important.
A potential upside: More competition in the AI chip market
There is, however, one potentially positive outcome of the transition: greater competition in the AI chip market.
Nvidia is estimated to control between 80% and 90% of the market for AI chips. Its formidable financial resources, the CUDA software ecosystem bundled with its products and Huang’s own forceful personality have helped cement its dominance. Some companies have reportedly acknowledged that they were reluctant to choose competitors’ chips, even when alternatives were available. Nvidia’s market position has also allowed it to charge premium prices for its GPUs.
In the post-Huang era, customers may become more willing to consider alternatives. Chips from AMD, Broadcom, Amazon and Google, as well as Anthropic’s efforts to develop its own processors, could emerge as more credible competitors. If Nvidia’s grip on the market weakens, the result could be lower prices, more choice and a more competitive AI industry.
