India, Nov. 13 -- For years, Jensen Huang's black leather jacket became one of the most recognisable outfits in technology. It appeared at product launches, developer conferences, COMPUTEX and major industry events, usually alongside announcements about chips that promised to make artificial intelligence faster and more powerful. Huang had turned Nvidia into much more than a semiconductor company. He had made it one of the central players in the global AI race. Now, that familiar figure is out of the picture for now.

On November 12 (yesterday), Nvidia announced that Huang had resigned as president, CEO and a member of its board, effective immediately. The company appointed its chief financial officer, Colette Kress, as interim CEO while ...