AI summary
Summary of article:
Kelis, Huida’s chief financial officer, took over as interim CEO due to the Huang Renxun scandal. They have always supported the revolving financing method of using funds to help customers purchase AI chips, and accepted corporate governance and succession reviews.
The Wall Street Journal published a special feature on the 12th introducing the new replacementsJen-Hsun Huang CFO Colette Cress takes over as interim CEO of Nvidia (also known as Nvidia). She was Huang’s longtime deputy and oversaw Huida’s finances as it became one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Kelis, 59, joined Huida in 2013. Before this, she worked at Cisco.Microsoft and Texas Instruments Finance Department. During his tenure, he significantly expanded Huida’s balance sheet, and then used the funds in the account to provide financial guarantees to customers in exchange for the purchase of Huida’s artificial intelligence (AI) chips.
Corrales issued a statement on the 12th praising Huang Jen-hsun and saying he would build on “the extraordinary foundation built by Huang Jen-hsun over the past 33 years.”
In a separate letter to employees, he thanked his colleagues for their efforts during an “extremely difficult period” before Huang Renxun resigned, adding: “We play a vital role in building the technology that will drive the AI revolution, and there is still important work to do.”
Huida’s market value has soared by more than 600 billion yuan this week due to the impact of Huang Renxun’s scandal. His departure is expected to bring continued scrutiny of Huida’s dealings with China and its huge balance sheet.
Huida uses its vast cash reserves to finance the entire artificial intelligence industry, a practice that Corrales has always defended. Critics say Huida’s efforts to boost industry-wide demand have made it more vulnerable to recession, but she calls the deals smart investments.
“We are aware of the scale of this type of support and some would even call it revolving financing,” he said in August. “We see it differently. The equity return on our invested capital will be excellent.”
But she sometimes listens to investors’ concerns. The Wall Street Journal reported that in August it pulled the brakes on a major deal to help OpenAI secure a data center project due to poor market reaction.
In an interview with an Israeli newspaper in 2023, she said that she joined Huida at the insistence of her two sons. At that time, Huida was expanding from the traditional personal computer game market to new businesses such as automotive chips.
He also said that what attracted him to join Huida was Huang Renxun, describing him as a visionary and praising Huida’s “non-individualistic” corporate culture. He said in 2018: “Our organization is quite flat. There’s really no organization chart. Everyone just knows who is responsible to what.”
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in 2016, she said: “If I had to give one piece of advice to a new chief financial officer, I would say: Don’t spend too much time reviewing past trends, but be clear about how quickly things could change in the future.”
Huida’s corporate governance issues also came to light this week. The company did not prepare a succession plan for Huang Renxun. The Board of Directors did not announce the appointment of senior director Harvey C. Jones as Chairman until the 12th. This post did not exist earlier.
Jones said in a letter to employees that the board of directors has full confidence in Kelly and believes she can deliver on her commitments to shareholders, customers, partners and every employee. The company said its board of directors has begun the search for a new CEO and will consider both internal and external candidates.
Claire is one of the wealthiest self-made women in America. In the latest list released by Forbes in June, she was ahead of singer Beyoncé. As of the close of trading on the 11th, the value of shares held by Huida was still more than 800 million yuan. Company documents show his total compensation from Huida last fiscal year was 14.3 million yuan.
