Nvidia's Finance Head Leaves for Startup – Big Changes Ahead
Who is Leaving and Why?
Nvidia's Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations, Simona Jankowski, is leaving the company to join a startup. On Monday, she announced this in a LinkedIn post, stating that the move "was not an easy decision." Jankowski has been with Nvidia for seven years and will be taking on the role of Chief Financial Officer at her new company, which she hasn't named yet.
Jankowski's Journey with Nvidia
Jankowski's journey with Nvidia started long before she joined the company in 2017. In 2001, as a Goldman Sachs equity research analyst, her first task was to create Nvidia's financial model. She met Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang back then and followed the company's stock performance throughout the 2000s.
Massive Growth Under Jankowski
Since joining Nvidia, Jankowski has witnessed and contributed to significant growth. For example, Nvidia's revenue has increased more than tenfold, and its earnings and market cap have jumped by over 20 times. Nvidia's flagship GPU's AI compute performance has improved by over 1,000 times, while the size of frontier AI models has grown over 20,000 times.
To explain, "market cap" is the total value of all a company's shares of stock. If a company has a high market cap, it means it is very valuable. For instance, if you have 10 apples each worth $1, the total value of your apples is $10. Similarly, Nvidia's market cap becoming $2 trillion means the total value of all its shares is $2 trillion.
Nvidia's Unstoppable Rise
Nvidia has recently joined an elite club of companies with a market cap of $3 trillion, alongside giants like Apple and Microsoft. Nvidia also briefly surpassed both to become the most valuable public company in the world by market cap.
In February, Nvidia became the first semiconductor company to achieve a $2 trillion valuation. They reported record fourth-quarter earnings and continued to outshine Wall Street expectations in May, reporting record first-quarter revenue of $26 billion for fiscal year 2025—a massive 262% increase from the previous year.
Recent Market Shifts
Despite this impressive track record, Nvidia’s shares have been sliding this week. As a result, the company's market cap has dropped to $3 trillion, which is now below Microsoft's $3.3 trillion and Apple's $3.2 trillion.
Conclusion
Simona Jankowski’s departure marks a significant change for Nvidia, but also highlights the incredible growth and achievements of the company over the past several years. With Nvidia remaining a tech giant, it will be interesting to see how both Jankowski and Nvidia navigate their next chapters.
