The Brief

Navigating family leave is not easy. When we’ve talked to pregnant people, family leave is one of the top topics they ask us about. It’s no wonder why — there are so many things to keep track of.

So why is this impossibly complicated? Why do you need four degrees and a spreadsheet to figure it out? This is our attempt to answer your questions about pregnancy and work in California.

We talked with several experts across the field; most of the answers around how California law intersects with work come from Katherine Wutchiett, staff attorney at Legal Aid at Work, which runs a work and family helpline that provides free, confidential advice to parents and caregivers.

How the US compares with the world

Because the laws vary so widely by region and by each person’s health conditions, figuring out your benefits takes a little bit of calculation.

And worldwide, this is not the norm. The United States is one of just seven countries in the world without a comprehensive program for national paid maternity leave. The average length for those that do have leave is 29 weeks. Estonians get up to 86 weeks of paid family leave, over a year and a half — for any parent, foster, adoptive, or guardian.

Research shows that paid family leave has multiple benefits for families that are able to take advantage of it, including breastfeeding for longer periods of time, better health outcomes for children as they grow, increases in men taking family leave, and the ability for birthing parents to return to their jobs.

But in the U.S., nearly one in four employed mothers return to work just two weeks after giving birth. If you are wondering what that might be like (hint: not recommended), check out LAist’s guide to the postpartum phase.

California is one of the few states in the country that does offer a constellation of laws to provide for work accommodations and leave around pregnancy.

Wutchiett says that just knowing these rights can lead to more stability at work in the long-term. “A lot of the issues that we see that come up, are people quit their job or are fired because they don't get the changes that they need in their pregnancy, when they are entitled to pregnancy accommodations,” she adds.

Do I need to tell my employer I’m pregnant?

First off, it’s important to know you’ve got rights!

Wutchiett says the first step is to start doing research to understand your basic rights in California.

“Employers don't always have it 100% right,” she says, adding that it’s important to know a bit about the basics before having a conversation with your employer.

Wutchiett says people often ask if they are required to tell their employer that they are pregnant. The answer is no, you are not — but certain legal protections and benefits are connected to being pregnant, like work accommodations and time off. So, she says, “Once you want to make use of those protections you need to tell your employer so that you can trigger their obligation to provide those to you.”

If you’re worried about your employer’s reaction, know that it’s illegal for your employer to discriminate against you or harass you due to pregnancy.

If you work at a place with five or more employees, your sick leave will protect your job if you need to take time off for prenatal medical care, morning sickness, or other pregnancy-related conditions. In the state of California, as of Jan. 1, 2024, you have five guaranteed paid sick days to cover this time off (in addition to any benefits your employer provides). Other cities may have more time off — like Los Angeles (48 hours, or six days) and Santa Monica (depends on your employer). Look up what type of sick leave is available in the specific city or state where you live.

Information from Legal Aid at Work

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What are reasonable work accommodations?

Now that you’re pregnant, some aspects of the way you work may need to change.

Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, your employer is required to provide accommodations to pregnant employees — as long as they are reasonable and advised by a health employer.

As Wutchiett explains, there’s no specific list of what these accommodations could be. “It completely depends on that person's job and what their healthcare provider recommends,” she says.

For example, if you work in a restaurant, it could be that a different server takes out the larger trays of food. Work accommodations can also include teleworking, switching from a position at the register to a position in the back of the stockroom, or if you have a job that usually requires standing, you can ask for a seat.

Accommodations are available to all employees, including part-time workers and those who are new to their job.

If you are looking for how to structure your email request to your employer or need a note from your doctor, you can download some sample letters.

How do I take time off to care for my baby?

First, the TL;DR version.

• Usually, depending on your medical condition, you can receive benefits up to four weeks before your expected delivery date and then up to six weeks after your delivery (without complications) and up to eight weeks after your delivery (cesarean birth). 
• Then, under California’s Paid Family Leave program, usually you can receive benefits for another eight weeks. After that, you may be entitled to another four weeks off unpaid. 
• All this may vary depending on where you work, your work status, and your health conditions. 

OK. How does this all work?

Here’s what’s key to understanding leave from work: There are laws that give you the right to go on leave and protect your job while you’re out. And then, separately, there’s how you’ll get paid — in California there are programs that give you partial pay during this time.

Your leave depends on the size of your employer, your health conditions, and how you deliver (vaginal or cesarean), and what programs you qualify for.

• A typical leave for a vaginal birth in California includes a total of 22 weeks off, with up to four weeks before the due date and 18 weeks afterwards, with 17 of those weeks paid at 70-90%.
• A typical leave for a cesarean birth is a total of 22 weeks off, with up to four weeks before the due date and 18 weeks afterwards, with 19 of those weeks paid at 70-90%.

Information from Legal Aid at Work

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LAist design staff

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Now let's talk about other protections.

If your employer has five or more employees, there are two laws that protect your job while you are out on leave — Pregnancy Disability Leave and the California Family Rights Act. Pregnancy Disability Leave is designed to provide leave before and after birth, depending on your particular health conditions. The California Family Rights Act provides time off for bonding with a new child if you’ve worked with your employer for a year or more. Both of these laws require you to give your employer at least 30 days' advance notice.

It’s important to note that as of 2021, the California Family Rights Act is available to workplaces with five or more employees. It previously only covered larger workplaces, so if you work for a smaller employer, they may not be aware of this change. Also, the federal Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA) overlaps with state laws — it does not provide you with additional leave.

To get paid while you are out, California has two programs that can provide pay. First, there’s State Disability Insurance, which provides a portion of your pay before and after your due date. Usually, depending on your medical condition, you can receive benefits up to four weeks before your expected delivery date and then up to six weeks after your delivery (without complications) and up to eight weeks after your delivery (cesarean birth).

California’s Paid Family Leave program then provides a portion of your pay for eight weeks to bond with a new child. People who don’t give birth can also use this program — that includes spouses and adoptive or foster parents.

Workers earning 70% or less of the state's average wage are eligible for 90% of their regular wages under the State Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave programs. For 2025, that's about $63,000. If you make more than that, you'll get 70% of your regular wages.

Both of these programs are available regardless of citizenship and immigration status. They are 100% worker funded. You can look at your pay stub and if it says CASDI, this is the amount of your money that is going into this fund. If you are undocumented, you can see this guide on how to apply.

Jenya Cassidy, director of the California Work and Family Coalition, says educating yourself on the basics of California laws is a helpful start. “You'd be surprised how many HR departments get this wrong and will tell a pregnant worker in California you have 12 weeks all together, which is not true,” she says.

Keep in mind all these things are a minimum. They are the floor and your employer may have extra benefits to add to this mix.

For example:

• Some employers supplement the 70-90% of your pay that California disability and paid family leave offer, to take your pay up to 100%.
• Your employer can allow you more time off than what is guaranteed by law. 
• Some employers allow flexible work arrangements upon return.
• And maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who work for Netflix and you can take as long as you need (averaging four to eight months, the company says)

Wutchiett recommends that if you make a special arrangement with your employer about benefits or time off, you confirm your conversation in writing, though email or a text. There’s no state agency that would step in for things above and beyond California law, but having documentation can help you make your case through other avenues.

If you live in San Francisco, the Paid Parental Leave Ordinance requires employers to supplement Paid Family Leave so that during your leave you receive 100% of your pay (up to a cap). San Francisco also has other special benefits around pregnancy and parenting.

P.S. Be prepared to be in contact with state agencies and/or insurance companies at the beginning of your leave. I remember one guy from the insurance company whose job was just to call people and ask if they had a vaginal or cesarean birth. In the crucial first days of birth, I was so exhausted I almost missed his call.

How does paid family leave for adoption or fostering work?

If you are an adoptive and foster parent, you also have the right to take leave to bond with and care for your new child.

Eligible employees have the right to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave from work, with potentially 8 of those weeks partially paid under California’s Paid Family Leave program. You’ll need to give 30 days’ advance notice to your employer if possible (or tell them as soon as you can). If your employer requests documentation like a letter from a foster care or adoption agency, you should provide that. Learn more about how this works.

California workers can also take sick time and leave to care for chosen family. As of 2023, employees can take time off to care for a “designated person,” someone who is a blood relative or someone else they consider like family. If you are an LGBTQ+ parent or have a nontraditional family structure, you might find this useful. Family caregivers can use California’s Paid Family Leave program to care for relatives.

What rights do I have to pump breastmilk at work?

A 2020 law requires employers to give employees the break time they need to pump at work. You can decide the amount of time you need, since it varies for each person. Your employer doesn’t need to pay for this time, except if you pump during your normal break times.

Your work must also provide an adequate space to express milk. It must:

• Be shielded from view, and free from intrusion
• Be safe, clean, and free from hazardous materials
• Contain a surface to place a breast pump and personal items 
• Contain a place to sit and have access to electricity or alternative devices including, but not limited to, extension cords or charging stations 
• Have access to a sink with running water and a refrigerator suitable for storing milk
• Not be a bathroom!

These are basic things, but Wutchiett says she has heard from people whose bosses told them to pump in, like, a chilled wine room or hallway or a supply closet. Not cool!

And also, as it turns out, not legal.

Your employer is also required to have a lactation policy and affirmatively distribute it to employees when they hire them.

How do I talk to my boss about pregnancy?

Like we previously wrote for LAist in a guide to sick leave, for starters, these things are key:

• Get it in writing. It's fine to request leave over the phone or in person, but follow up in writing. That way you have a record of your conversation.
• Include the details. Make sure you include the dates you anticipate needing leave, when you expect to be able to return to work, and the reason you are not able to work. 
• Name drop the law. It can be helpful to include the name of the law or laws that provide the leave you’re requesting. That way, says Wutchiett, if the employer is unfamiliar with the law, they can look it up.

And to finesse the conversation …

• Give as much notice as you can. For pregnancy leave, the laws require a 30-day notice if possible.
• Rehearse. Run your email or text by a friend to double check it. It can make you feel more prepared.
• Take a buddy. Cassidy has seen it work with people who are talking to their employer about lactation accommodations. Also, approach your supervisor in a friendly way to educate them. You know your boss, so you probably have a good idea about what approach would work best.

Most importantly, says Wutchiett, remember: “It’s against the law for people to treat people worse because they try to assert any of these rights.”

If your employer is telling you something that is incorrect or doing something against the law, see some tips.

What time off can I use for pregnancy loss or miscarriage?

Experiencing a pregnancy loss is rough. In addition to potential physical recovery, there’s also the need to process grief and make meaning out of your experience. The time and space you need can be difficult to come by in a world that continues to move fast.

Time off from your job is protected under these laws:

• Reproductive Loss Leave, which went into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, covers five days of unpaid leave for a failed adoption, failed surrogacy, miscarriage, stillbirth, or an unsuccessful assisted reproduction. 
• The Pregnancy Disability Leave Act also covers up to four months of job-protected, unpaid leave for health conditions related to pregnancy. This can include physical recovery as well as mental health issues. 
• If you need more time because you are disabled, the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Fair Employment and Housing Act may allow you to take more time as a reasonable accommodation.

To receive pay during this time, you can use five days of sick leave available in California — or more, depending on the city where you live. You may also be eligible to receive 70% or 90% of your income while you are disabled and recovering through California’s State Disability Insurance (SDI) program. You’ll have to consult with your doctor about how much time is necessary in your case. A typical recovery from a live birth is six to eight weeks.

All of these protections and benefits are available regardless of immigration status.

As with the other leave laws I mention here, these laws are the minimum required under state law. Your employer may have additional bereavement time and you can talk with them about other special arrangements — just make sure to document any agreements that you make!

Legal Aid at Work breaks down all of your rights after reproductive loss in this helpful fact sheet.

New laws and making change

California’s laws around pregnancy and work don’t cover everyone — if you work at a workplace with four or fewer employees or are an independent contractor, many of these laws may not apply to you. Many public sector workers, like teachers and city employees, also aren't eligible for the state's paid leave program because they don't pay into the state's disability insurance fund. You may find that you have challenges submitting your application when many of the forms are available only in English. You may experience delays as EDD processes your claim.

And, of course, just because you have rights does not mean your employer will make it easy for you to enjoy them.

Cassidy suggests that if you are running into problems accessing paid leave and you don’t have a union, you should call your state representative. Yes, really! She says that representatives have successfully helped elevate cases that they have flagged for them, and it also lets elected representatives know the policies as they stand aren’t working. And don’t be intimidated. It’s literally their job to listen to you.

Also, as Cassidy said previously to LAist, “It can be very satisfying, when you're frustrated about something, to at least know that you're doing what you can.”

LAist senior reporters Mariana Dale and Elly Yu contributed to this guide. It was also informed by the Hey bb review committee: Maternal and Child Health Access parent coach and psychotherapist Denise Cervantes, California Black Women’s Health Project senior manager of maternal and reproductive health Raena Granberry, licensed clinical psychologist and birth doula Sayida Peprah, and Legal Aid at Work staff attorney Sela Steiger.

This article was updated on Aug. 1 to include new California laws and updated resource links.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

An open-air food and art marketplace by the organizers of the popular Smorgasburg LA is coming to East Los Angeles this Saturday. 

Eastside Living will bring shopping, food, music and other activities to East L.A.’s Eugene A. Obregon Park. The free event is part of a collaboration between L.A. County and Smorgasburg LA to highlight more than 30 local “small businesses, makers, chefs, artists, and entrepreneurs who make L.A. County’s neighborhoods what they are.”

Vendors include Mariscos Mar-es, an Eastside-based seafood pop-up; Sus Arepas, which offers Colombian bites from its shop in City Terrace; Stairway to Pizza, a specialty pizza operation based in Boyle Heights; and coffee from UMO Coffee and East L.A.’s Enfermos Cafe. Shoppers can find vintage items from Boyle Heights’ Te Adoro Vintage or Whittier’s Newlin House. Visit  Smorgasburg’s Instagram for the latest list of vendors.

A customer sorts through clothing outside of Boyle Heights’ Te Adoro Vintage in Boyle Heights. The vintage clothing shop will have a space at East LA Living on Nov. 14, 2026.

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For couple Victor and Leticia Rojas, who co-own Mariscos Mar-es, the market will give local vendors a chance to showcase their culinary creations to a wider audience of foodies right in their backyard. 

“We see a lot of events happening in Culver City and the Arts District but not in East L.A. We’re really excited that Smorgasburg is partnering with East L.A. organizers and holding an event over here,” Victor Rojas said.

His wife agreed, adding the need for a community-powered event in their neighborhood after a year of anxiety driven by ICE around the Los Angeles area. 

“A lot of people are scared to go out, so it’s events like this that show the pride of East L.A. and allow people to come together as one to explore the foods and other vendors,” Leticia Rojas said. 

Smorgasburg LA launched in downtown L.A. in 2016 and has since amassed a following of foodies to taste plates from locally based pop-ups. The event hosts thousands of hungry attendees each week and features food and shopping vendors as well as a beer garden. 

Smorgasburg’s SGV Living, a similar event featuring vendors and other small businesses local to the San Gabriel Valley, launches on Nov. 28 in Rowland Heights.  

The Trump administration has made many changes to education policy that are hard to miss: cutting the U.S. Education Department's workforce by roughly half, canceling research funding, uprooting special education staff, upending student civil rights protections, overhauling student loan repayment plans, scaling back graduate school loans — the list goes on.

But the latest change — one President Donald Trump has called his "secret weapon" — has gone largely unnoticed, even as it's set to take effect in July. That's because it's hidden inside one singularly boring word:

Accreditation.

"The time has come to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical left," Trump said in a 2023 campaign video. "Our secret weapon will be the college accreditation system."

Specifically, he pledged to overhaul it — a notably wonky threat from a politician who usually disdains wonkery. Now, the Education Department has kept Trump's promise.

What is accreditation? 

It's the system the U.S. government relies on to determine which colleges and universities are worthy of receiving millions, even billions of dollars in federal student loans and grants.

In practical terms, colleges pay membership dues to third-party, nonprofit accreditors that then review the schools across a range of categories, including curriculum quality, faculty qualifications, physical facilities, the soundness of their finances and so on.

An accreditor's job, essentially, is to make sure college students are getting good value and to prevent shady schools from pocketing taxpayer dollars without delivering quality degrees.

Decades ago, Congress also made clear that accreditors are not part of the government.

"Congress wanted accrediting agencies to be independent of the federal government. It wanted agencies to set standards independent of the federal government," says Antoinette Flores at the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

Federal law does require that accreditors assess schools in several key areas — such as student achievement, faculty and curriculum — and it gives the Department oversight. But Flores says, the law lets accreditors decide what standards a school must meet to determine its worthiness.

In keeping with Trump's 2023 promise, the department has now overhauled the federal rules for accreditors — changes it says will foster innovation and lower costs. Some higher education experts worry these changes will not only hurt students but also allow the department to further punish schools it doesn't like and even police campus political speech.

"This rule gives [the Education Department] the authority to meddle in the internal affairs of colleges and universities in ways that they never have been able to in the past," warns Bob Shireman, an accreditation expert and former top official in the Obama Education Department.

Changes to what accreditors will measure

While the Education Department cannot legally tell accreditors precisely how to evaluate colleges and universities, it does oversee some key requirements, and these new rules dramatically expand those requirements and the department's authority with them.

Most notably, accreditors must now evaluate school policies on intellectual diversity, "ensuring that students are exposed to a range of viewpoints," according to a department press release.

It's not entirely clear how that requirement will work in practice, but opposition has been loud.

"For the first time," Shireman says, "you will have an avenue for the federal government to go in at least to an accreditor, but through accreditors to colleges, and tell them what balance of points of view the federal government thinks they should have."

The department could then, conceivably, threaten a school's accreditation and, ultimately, its access to federal student aid if it considers them out of balance.

Of this change, PEN America, a nonprofit dedicated to defending free expression, warned that "this is part of a plan to weaken [higher education] and its historic protections for the freedom to think, teach, research and learn."

The Education Department argues it's doing the opposite, calling this "a commonsense step toward restoring intellectual diversity by … creating an environment where differing perspectives can be debated openly and fairly," wrote Ellen Keast, communications director for the under secretary, in a statement to NPR.

"The regulations do not mandate any specific policies," Keast added, "nor do they give the Department any authority to police speech. Instead, they reinforce a fundamental principle: truth emerges through rigorous debate, not enforced consensus."

Nevertheless, even some conservatives have expressed anxiety over this expansion of federal power. Beth Akers, an economist and senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, supports much of the overhaul but says this particular change goes too far.

"[It] does put the administration sort of in a seat of judgment over the institutions, over the accreditors, about whether or not they are appropriately teaching ideology. And that is something I'm uncomfortable with," Akers says.

While the Education Department insists it cannot police political speech on campus, that is what Trump promised in that 2023 video, when he pledged to "fire the radical-left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxists, maniacs and lunatics."

Not all of the changes are controversial. One enjoys some bipartisan support, says Emily Rounds, senior higher education policy adviser at the center-left think tank, Third Way.

That change will push accreditors to give more weight to student outcomes, Rounds says, focusing on questions like, "How much are they going to be earning? What are the licensure pass rates for certain programs? What is the graduation rate? Does an institution retain students year to year or are students dropping out?"

The new accreditation rule changes are set to go into effect ahead of the 2027-28 academic year. Because they were made through the traditional rulemaking process, it will be difficult for Democrats to undo them.

How we got here

Fresh political tension over accreditation began to boil during the Biden administration — between Republican-led states and accreditors they considered too powerful and too liberal.

"The way in which [accreditors] are exerting their authority has really rubbed people the wrong way when it came to these ideological standards they're putting onto institutions," Akers says.

Florida and North Carolina actively clashed with their accreditors over issues including diversity, equity and inclusion and viewpoint diversity on their public university campuses.

"When we said, 'No DEI,' the accreditor was telling our universities, 'Oh no no, you're not gonna get accredited unless you do DEI,'" said Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, in June 2025. "Who the heck are they to say what our universities have to do?"

DeSantis pushed for the creation of a new accreditor to replace the longstanding accreditor of Florida's public universities, saying he hopes to "upend the monopoly of the woke accreditation cartels."

Five other state university systems — in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas — have also said they will switch to this new accreditor, the Commission for Public Higher Education.

Making it easier to become an accreditor

Another of the Trump administration's stated goals with its accreditation overhaul is cutting red tape and making it easier for schools and even states to create new accreditors. That, the administration hopes, will lead to more accreditors for schools to choose from.

"The rule promotes greater competition and innovation," the department said in its press release.

Competition, according to the administration, will allow schools to shop around for an accreditor that best fits their needs and lowers costs for schools and students alike. What's more, if a school doesn't like its accreditor, it will be easier to switch mid-stream.

One thing is certain: This will weaken traditional accreditors and strengthen schools.

AEI's Beth Akers argues that's not a bad thing and that this shift will empower schools to innovate and take chances. "We've been teaching students the same way for a very long time. Come sit in a lecture, take a test and then after you've sat there long enough, we give you the credits."

Under the new rules, Akers hopes, schools will be freer to experiment with everything from the value of a credit hour to how much time a student actually needs to spend inside a classroom.

But Bob Shireman, the former Obama administration official, warns that forcing accreditors to compete for the schools they'll be auditing won't increase quality. "One person's red tape is another person's consumer protection: Checking to see if the fire extinguishers have expired is red tape."

Similarly, Shireman worries that making it easier for colleges and universities to jump from one accreditor to another could also weaken student protections.

"If one [accreditor] starts identifying problems, [schools] simply shift their weight over to another accreditor. And so it becomes whack-a-mole in terms of oversight of colleges, and we fail to catch problems soon enough."

Edited by Nirvi Shah
Copyright 2026 NPR

Jensen Huang, CEO of the chipmaking juggernaut Nvidia, is stepping down, the company's board announced Thursday.

The decision comes days after the company took the extraordinary step of launching an investigation following news reports alleging that Huang had had an extramarital affair with one of the company's clients, who U.S. intelligence officials concluded had been recruited by China's top spy agency, according to the New York Times. NPR has not independently confirmed those reports.

In an email to Nvidia staff on Sunday, Huang admitted to cheating on his wife, and said he would cooperate with the investigation.

The company's share price dropped sharply on Wednesday, after the New York Times reported that Huang had had a second affair, this one with an Nvidia executive who reported to him.

Nvidia did not immediately respond to an NPR request for comment.

Huang was widely seen as one of the most important business leaders in the United States. Nvidia dominates the market for the chips used to train and run artificial intelligence. Huang also had President Trump's ear on AI policy, with Trump even calling Huang's phone in September while Huang was onstage during a conference.

The scandal that brought down Huang snowballed quickly over the past two weeks. The New York Times reported in late October that Huang had a close relationship with a Chinese woman at a Singapore-based company that was buying Nvidia chips. Citing unidentified sources, it said U.S. intelligence officials believed she had been recruited by the Chinese government to spy on him and possibly try to influence policy. NPR has not independently confirmed this reporting.

A drip-drip of scoops followed — from the Times and other outlets — suggesting that the relationship was romantic, that senior Trump administration officials knew about the allegations some time ago, and that Huang had had a second affair.

China's foreign ministry has said the allegations of spying are baseless and part of a smear campaign against China.

What's next for Nvidia

Huang's departure launches Nvidia into uncharted territory.

Huang's relationship with the alleged Chinese agent and what the Trump administration knew about it will likely be the subject of an investigation when Democrats take control of Congress in January.

"We should all be extremely concerned about this, and the fact that the White House knew about this for weeks, maybe months now, is is is very disturbing as well," said Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-NY, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in an interview with NPR.

The company's Chief Financial Officer, Colette Kress, has been appointed interim CEO. The board said in their statement they would conduct a full search for a new CEO and consider both internal and external candidates.

"There's no obvious replacement," said Stephen Witt, author of a book about Nvidia called The Thinking Machine. "It's not even clear Nvidia can be the same kind of company without Jensen. I have a hard time imagining what Nvidia looks like without Jensen."

Nvidia still plans to report its quarterly earnings on Tuesday.

Huang was one of the longest-serving CEOs in U.S. corporate history, stepping into the role after launching the company with partners over bottomless cups of coffee at a Denny's restaurant in San Jose, Calif., 33 years ago. Nvidia got its start making specialized chips to create 3D graphics for computers that would come to be known as graphics processing units, or GPUs.

He was the face of Nvidia and an unlikely celebrity, giving countless keynote speeches and interviews in his trademark leather jacket, or posing for selfies with adoring fans.

Huang was also the company's driving force. Under his leadership, Nvidia made a big and early bet on artificial intelligence, investing heavily to transform its niche graphics chips into general-purpose processing units that were ideal for the volume of computations required to create AI.

That bet would pay off in spades as GPUs became the go-to chip for AI creators. When AI burst into the public consciousness in late 2022 with the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT — a chatbot trained and run on Nvidia chips — the firm was worth about $400 billion. Today, it's valued at more than $4 trillion, among the most valuable in the world, and it dominates the market for GPUs.

But analysts say despite Huang's visionary management of the business, he had a blind spot for succession and hadn't articulated a clear plan, at least publicly.

In a Bloomberg interview from mid-October, Huang was vague about succession plans. "I'm really hoping that the next CEO of the company is already at the company, but 20 years from now, I hope I stay healthy and I hope I continue to earn my keep."

Huang's adult children, Spencer and Madison Huang, both work at Nvidia. Asked about talk that Madison might be in line to succeed him, he paused, and told Bloomberg: "if that's their aspiration, Spencer or Madison's, they have to go earn it. And it's really, really hard work. It takes a lot of sacrifice."

Daniel Newman, CEO of the Futurum Group, a tech research firm, said the company will inevitably be different without Huang, and its future success is unclear.

"They've always had Jensen as this sort of visionary at the front," he said. "I don't think that's replaceable."

Katie McQue contributed to this story.
Copyright 2026 NPR