If Google wins AI race, Nvidia is 'in trouble,' says author of Jensen Huang biography
Francisco Velasquez Thu, December 11, 2025 at 1:46 PM EST
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Nvidia's (NVDA) AI turf could take a blow if Google (GOOGL, GOOG) keeps firing on all cylinders.
"The biggest risk right now obviously is Google," said Stephen Witt, author of "The Thinking Machine," a Jensen Huang biography.
That risk, he told Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid, is largely tied to Google's Gemini model. Witt described it as the "best AI right now in the benchmarks outside the Nvidia stack."
Witt explained that Gemini was trained entirely on its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). If Google proves it can sustain world-leading AI development using only its homegrown chip stack, it sets a potent precedent for other tech giants to follow suit.
"That's a huge risk," Witt said. "If Google ends up winning this AI race ... Nvidia will be in trouble."
This risk, coupled with competition from rivals like Broadcom (AVGO) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), is why "it's very easy to imagine a world" where Nvidia's high-flying stock declines. The AI chipmaker's shares are up over 1,270% in the past five years.
To mitigate the core risk of rivals like Google winning the chip war, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is already looking past generative AI. Witt said a significant amount of the CEO's personal effort is being poured into the next great computing wave: robotics.
If Huang can dominate the robotics wave, he said, "that will mean several trillion dollars in market capitalization for this company."
However, Nvidia has another issue: the lack of any clear succession plan.
"It's just Jensen at the top," Witt said. "There's no second in command. There's no obvious successor." He noted that the board has been silent, and Huang has offered no advice on a succession strategy.
That suggests Nvidia's $4 trillion valuation — which accounts for over 8% of the entire S&P 500 (^GSPC) — is, in many ways, resting solely on Huang's vision.
Witt described Huang as a "world-class engineer" who could "design these microchips himself," a skill that whoever takes the helm must also possess. He noted that neither of Huang's two children, who work at the company, has a technical background, making them noncontenders for the top spot.
Witt also provided a look behind the polished stage persona of Huang, known for his trademark leather jacket. Beneath the showmanship is a highly intense, "almost totally neurotic" leader who is driven not by optimism, but by fear.
"He's driven by negative emotions, things like fear of failure, guilt, even shame are what make Jensen get up in the morning and work so hard to make Nvidia succeed," Witt explained.
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The CEO is a "performer" who engineers every public appearance, including public speaking, which Witt notes "does not come easily for him."
Francisco Velasquez is a Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on LinkedIn, X, and Instagram. Story tips? Email him at francisco.velasquez@yahooinc.com.
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