Warren Buffett’s 1991 Playbook Points The Path Forward As Nvidia Reportedly Prepares To Oust Jensen Huang. Buffett Said He Could Forgive Losses, But There Was One Thing He Would Be Ruthless About
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Although NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) has beaten Wall Street’s earnings estimates five consecutive quarters, the most important AI chipmaker in the world now faces a question that no earnings report can settle. On Wednesday, Nov. 11, The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia’s board is preparing to boot out co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang. Nvidia has not confirmed the report. But the stock responded fast. Shares closed at $173.73 and then slipped to $159.55 in after-hours trading as of 7:44 PM ET, a drop of 8.16%. Those after-hours figures could change by the next session.
Wall Street has watched a board step into a leadership vacuum at a systemically important firm before. In 1991, Warren Buffett took over at Salomon Brothers after its top executives quit. He told Congress he would forgive the firm for losing money but would not allow damage to its reputation. Buffett has said nothing about Nvidia or Huang. Still, his playbook gives investors a way to judge what Nvidia’s board does next.
Why Nvidia’s Board Is Reportedly Moving Against Huang
On Nov. 8, Huang acknowledged that he had been unfaithful to his wife. The board opened an investigation and said it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised. The New York Times reported that unnamed U.S. intelligence officials deemed the woman in that relationship a Chinese spy. China calls the claim unfounded. The SF Standard reported that the Times also described a second relationship, which is unconfirmed and which Huang has not addressed.
What’s particularly upsetting for shareholders is the gap in governance. Fortune reports that Nvidia’s board has no chair and that the company has no clear succession plan. D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria said the circumstances would speed up a transition Nvidia isn’t prepared for. According to Fortune, Huang has led Nvidia for 33 years since co-founding it in 1993. Under him, fiscal 2026 revenue reached $215.9 billion, up 65%. On the August earnings call, Huang took every substantive analyst question, and CFO Colette Kress was the only other executive on the call.
Buffett’s 1991 Salomon Playbook
According to Fortune’s 1997 account, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-B) agreed in September 1987 to buy $700 million of Salomon convertible preferred stock, a stake of about 12%, and Buffett joined the board. Fortune says trader Paul Mozer later broke the Treasury’s 35% single-bidder limit in December 1990 and February 1991 by placing unauthorized customer bids. In late April, Chairman John Gutfreund and two other executives agreed that the New York Fed should be told. Even so, no one notified regulators through July.
On Aug. 10, Charles Munger learned that top management had known since April, and he and Buffett pushed for full disclosure. On Aug. 13, Fortune reports, Gutfreund received a stern New York Fed letter demanding a report within ten days, and he did not share it with the board. Buffett later called that letter the “atom bomb.” Gutfreund and president Thomas Strauss resigned in mid-August, and Buffett agreed to serve as interim chairman. Per Fortune, he interviewed about ten managing directors and chose Deryck Maughan to run the securities operation.
On Aug. 18, Treasury banned Salomon from its auctions. Buffett told Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady it was the most important day of his life. That afternoon, Treasury lifted the ban on bids Salomon made for its own account.
Ruthless About Reputation, Forgiving of Losses
Accounts from AOL/Benzinga and Yahoo Finance say that in September 1991 testimony before a House subcommittee, Buffett called himself forgiving of losses but stern of damage to the firm’s reputation. He ordered full cooperation with regulators and prosecutors, and he brought in lawyer Robert Denham as a full-time monitor. According to Fortune, Salomon paid $290 million to resolve the matter, and Mozer served nearly four months in prison. Yahoo Finance reports that Buffett cut the 1991 bonus pool by $110 million and that about 280 people were laid off.
Buffett went back to Omaha in May 1992, and Denham became chairman. Fortune says Berkshire’s stake was worth about $1.7 billion in the 1997 Travelers deal, a result Buffett called a “scratch single.”
Where the Salomon Parallel Breaks Down
Salomon faced a regulatory scandal that threatened its survival, a Treasury ban, and executives who sat on information for months. Buffett also held real power there as a major shareholder and director. Nvidia’s board says it has no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised, and no investor holds a position like Buffett’s. The part that carries over is the principle: speed, disclosure, and a credible successor.
Two Modern Ouster Precedents Worth Remembering
When Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) CEO Brian Krzanich resigned on June 21, 2018 with no successor ready, the CFO served as interim CEO for seven months, per 24/7 Wall St. According to 24/7 Wall St., Intel stock fell 2.4% that day and trailed the benchmark S&P 500 by about 17 points a year later. McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) took a different path. It fired Steve Easterbrook on Nov. 3, 2019 and named a successor the same day. Per 24/7 Wall St., its shares fell 2.7% the next trading day and beat the S&P 500 a year later.
Nvidia’s own employees are backing Huang. A Blind survey cited by 24/7 Wall St. found that 88% of 232 Nvidia employees want him to stay. In May, 24/7 Wall St. examined what happens to Nvidia if Jensen Huang steps down, and the question of whether Kress takes over is now urgent.
What Nvidia’s Board and Investors Should Watch Next
In a Time opinion piece, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and co-authors write that Huang had about 60 direct reports, and they name Ian Buck and Kress as internal candidates for interim CEO or co-CEOs. Nvidia’s August 8-K disclosed supply obligations of $279.0 billion, mostly memory for Vera Rubin. It also guided third-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue to $108.0 billion, plus or minus 2%.
Investors can follow the board’s next steps closely. Salomon suggests three things to watch: who gets named, how quickly, and how openly the board talks. The long-term record is the starting point for whoever comes next. Over 10 years, Nvidia stock has climbed 7949.51%, the kind of run that only a handful of technology names ever produce (we reverse-engineered the early traits those winners shared in a free Next Nvidia Playbook). This is not investment advice.
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AJ spent 10 years writing about financial markets at The Motley Fool. His coverage centers on technology stocks and the broader macroeconomic trends, from interest rates to geopolitics, that shape where markets are headed next. AJ is drawn to the stories where big-picture economics and individual companies collide.
