Nvidia's Biggest Challenge After Jensen Huang? Finding Another Leader With His 'Sense Of Urgency,' Says Gene Munster

• Munster attributed Nvidia's extraordinary growth to a familiar formula behind some of the world's most successful technology companies, which is founder-led leadership with an almost relentless sense of urgency.
• He noted that Nvidia's revenue grew from approximately $27 billion in calendar year 2022 to an estimated $415 billion in 2026, with Huang playing a central role.
• Munster also credited Huang with building the CUDA software ecosystem around Nvidia's GPUs and expanding into emerging markets such as physical AI.

Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) has transformed itself into an artificial intelligence powerhouse under Jensen Huang, but sustaining that momentum over the long term could prove difficult without the founder's leadership, warned Deepwater Asset Management's Gene Munster.

In a recent note, Munster argued that Nvidia's biggest challenge is finding a successor who can preserve the urgency and ambition that helped propel the company through one of the most extraordinary growth periods in technology history.

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Nvidia shares fell more than 2% in Friday’s regular trading, declining over 1% more during the afterhours session.

Munster Touts Huang’s Contribution To NVDA’s Growth

Munster attributed Nvidia's extraordinary growth to a familiar formula behind some of the world's most successful technology companies, which is founder-led leadership with an almost relentless sense of urgency.

He noted that Nvidia's revenue grew from approximately $27 billion in calendar year 2022 to an estimated $415 billion in 2026, with Huang playing a central role in the company's transformation from a graphics and gaming chipmaker into a dominant AI infrastructure provider.

Munster also credited Huang with building the CUDA software ecosystem around Nvidia's GPUs, expanding into emerging markets such as physical AI, embracing open models and pursuing acquisitions such as Hugging Face.

"When I think back to the magical tech investments over of the past 45 years, the ones I come back to share a central characteristic: a founder with urgency central to their DNA," Munster wrote.

He pointed to several technology leaders who embodied that approach, including Apple Inc.’s (AAPL)  Steve Jobs, Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Meta Platforms Inc. (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR) CEO Alex Karp and Tesla Inc. (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.

Munster highlighted Musk's willingness to sleep on the factory floor during Tesla's Model 3 production ramp as an example of the urgency required to navigate difficult periods.

He described these founders as having "a constant wartime mentality when it comes to beating the competition."

Munster Says Nvidia Must Find A Successor Who Can Maintain That Urgency

Munster believes Nvidia's long-term challenge will be preserving that founder-led culture once Huang is no longer involved in running the company.

He pointed to Apple and Google as examples of companies that struggled to maintain their momentum after their founders stepped away.

Apple's struggles following Jobs' departure in the 1980s, followed by his return and renewed push for innovation, illustrate the importance of founder-led urgency, according to Munster.

He also suggested that Google's early ambition under Page and Brin helped establish its dominance, while the company's subsequent trajectory highlights the difficulty of sustaining that original entrepreneurial drive.

"As for the long term, the Board's central need is to find a leader with a core sense of urgency. That's a job where history is not on their side," Munster wrote.

Despite those concerns, Munster remains optimistic about Nvidia's near-term prospects. He said he is confident in the company's next couple of years and believes the broader AI infrastructure buildout is still in its early stages.

"As a shareholder in Nvidia, I believe NVDA is undervalued. I also believe we are much earlier in the AI buildout than most think, and it will deliver upside to Street estimates over the next couple of years," he wrote.

However, Munster said the longer-term question remains whether Nvidia can preserve the leadership philosophy that helped turn it into one of the world's most valuable technology companies.

What Retail Investors Think Of NVDA Stock

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around Nvidia trended in the ‘extremely bullish’ territory at the time of writing.

NVDA stock is down 13% year-to-date. The S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) are up 12% over the past 12 months.

Also See: Nvidia's Jensen Huang Is 'Irreplaceable' And Worth $1 Trillion To The Story, Says Dan Ives Amid Support From Elon Musk, Gavin Baker And Others

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