Nvidia’s ousted leader was a rhetorical and financial booster for investments that are driving economic growth.
It seems crazy to suggest that the downfall of one chief executive could have macroeconomic implications, but in this case it might be true.
Jensen Huang, as has been widely discussed in recent days, ran Nvidia almost single-handedly and was unusually central to his company’s success. Nvidia, in turn, has been unusually central to the artificial intelligence boom — not just developing the chips that run most A.I. models, but also helping to finance the data center build out.
And that build out has become a crucial driver of U.S. economic growth while some other sectors are struggling. Moreover, Mr. Huang’s ouster comes at what was already a delicate time for the A.I. industry. There have been signs in recent months that investors are growing more skeptical that companies will be able to deliver returns that justify the huge investments they are making in A.I., or at least that those returns could take longer than expected to materialize.
And Democrats’ sweeping victories in last week’s midterm elections could lead to new restrictions on data center construction, which could jeopardize the industry’s boom. In the past, when confidence in the A.I. story has wavered, Mr. Huang and Nvidia have often been the ones to calm doubts, reporting huge sales figures or stepping in to provide financing to data center projects whose future seemed in jeopardy.
This time around, it isn’t clear who will fill the void.
