Nvidia's board has contacted Arm CEO Rene Haas (르네 하스) as a candidate to succeed former Chief Executive Jensen Huang, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

Haas is one of several people under review. It is unclear whether he would receive an offer, or accept one if it is made. Haas maintains close ties with Huang and some Nvidia board members.

Nvidia's board pushed back on the report. The board told Reuters it is still at the stage of selecting an executive search firm and has not formally contacted any candidate. It stressed that "speculation about individual candidates, internal or external, is premature."

Analysts also mention Ian Buck (이안 벅), a Nvidia executive in the data centre unit, and Lisa Su (리사 수), AMD's CEO, as possible candidates. There has been no confirmed appointment or offer.

Haas, 64 this year, is a semiconductor executive with experience across engineering, product development and sales. He studied electrical engineering at Clarkson University, worked at Tensilica and Syntara Networks, and joined Nvidia in 2006. After seven years as vice president and general manager of the computing products business, he moved to Arm in 2013. He became chief commercial officer in 2015 and then led the IP products group in 2017 before becoming CEO in February 2022. It was when Nvidia's $40 billion acquisition of Arm collapsed under pressure from regulators.

Haas listed Arm on Nasdaq in September 2023. Arm's valuation at the time of the listing was about $54.5 billion, one of the largest initial public offerings that year. Arm posted revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up 27 percent from a year earlier. Data centre chip royalties doubled. The first commercial shipments of a new central processing unit are set for early 2027.

A complication is his relationship with SoftBank. Haas is a SoftBank director and has also served as CEO of SoftBank Group International since April. He would need to resolve that relationship first to move to Nvidia. The two companies are partners, but overlapping interests in data centre hardware are growing.

Inside the company, some are calling for the founder's return. Wired reported that an internal Nvidia suggestion-board post drew more than 1,600 comments, with many supporting Huang's return. Some employees are also calling for transparency about the circumstances of his resignation. That does not mean the board has begun discussions about his return.

The next CEO would inherit leadership in artificial intelligence chips as well as sensitive relationships with governments and customers as the United States discusses tighter export restrictions on China. Nvidia will report earnings on Nov. 17 under interim CEO Kress.