The most powerful job opening in tech is barely hours old, and it already has a presidential endorsement. Hours after Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia's chief executive on Thursday, President Donald Trump said the only man for the job is Tim Cook — Apple's former chief executive, now its executive chairman.

"NOW THAT Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place - TIM COOK of Apple," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. "A Legend replaces a Legend!"

Huang resigned effective immediately after reports of two extramarital affairs, including one U.S. officials believe involved a Chinese spy, MacRumors reported. Nvidia named chief financial officer Colette Kress interim CEO and said its board search will consider internal and external candidates. Investors were less sanguine: shares fell as much as 12% in early trading Thursday, putting roughly $500 billion of market value at risk.

Cook is, on paper, the safe pair of hands. He succeeded Steve Jobs, ran Apple for 15 years, and stepped down on September 1 in a planned transition to executive chairman. He is the operator who turned Apple's supply chain into the envy of the industry — the steady-leadership archetype a board in crisis reaches for. But Nvidia is not Apple: a founder-led chip-design culture built around one man's technical vision, and Cook's genius has always been operations, not silicon. There is also no indication Cook actually wants the job.

The board's real shortlist may already be looking elsewhere. Semafor reported Wednesday that Apple's chief hardware officer Johny Srouji — the man behind Apple silicon — is under consideration, and Bloomberg reported the board has hired an outside firm to run the search. Investor's Business Daily named Ian Buck, Nvidia's hyperscale and high-performance computing chief, as the leading internal candidate. Analyst Dan Ives, meanwhile, called Cook a "dark horse candidate" — flattering, and a long way from a frontrunner.

The succession race now collides with the calendar. Nvidia reports third-quarter earnings on November 17, its first call under interim CEO Kress. Whoever takes the job inherits not just the world's most important chip company, but an FBI investigation, a board probe, and a share price that has already priced in the chaos. A presidential endorsement is not a job offer — and so far, nobody has said Cook is even taking the call.

— via MacRumors