Ian Buck built Nvidia's secret weapon. Jensen Huang's departure makes it even more essential to the company's future.

Ian Buck is a lesser-known force behind Nvidia's technological moat and market share. Jensen Huang's resignation elevates Buck's role as a steward of the company's original vision. How Nvidia maintains its moat and what's next for the company, in part, lies with Buck. Editor's note: This story was originally published in June of 2025, but has been updated to reflect Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's resignation. Users on the prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket are giving Nvidia's Ian Buck the highest odds of permanently succeeding Huang. As Nvidia enters its post-Jensen Huang era, one of the people best positioned to shape its future is the engineer who helped build its moat. Ian Buck has spent more than two decades at Nvidia and created CUDA, the once-obscure software platform that has since become the foundation of the AI boom. The 48-year-old's contribution to Nvidia is hard-coded into the company's history.

This excerpt comes from the named source. Read the original for the full reporting.