Will Nvidia survive the post Jensen Huang era? Ask Apple’s Tim Cook and Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi

Nvidia shares have lost more than 30% from their October peak, wiping out roughly $1.6 trillion in market value.

Investors have faced this question before. In 2011, Steve Jobs stepped down as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO, leaving Tim Cook to lead a company synonymous with its founder. Six years later, Uber (NYSE: UBER) investors forced out Travis Kalanick, paving the way for Dara Khosrowshahi to take over.

Both companies became considerably more valuable under their successors, but they took very different paths to get there.

Apple thrived after Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs resigned as Apple CEO in August 2011, shortly after the company briefly overtook Exxon Mobil as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.

His departure raised questions about whether Apple could continue producing hit consumer products without the executive most closely associated with its success. As the Wharton School noted at the time, Cook faced the difficult task of succeeding a leader so closely identified with Apple.

He needed to “find a leadership style that fits him while keeping Apple’s business strategy on a steady path,” Wharton said.

Even JPMorgan analysts were uncertain, assigning the stock a “hold” rating amid concerns about the leadership transition.

But Cook thrived as CEO. He oversaw the introduction of Apple Watch and AirPods, even as the company continued to depend heavily on the iPhone. When he took over in 2011, Apple’s market capitalization was roughly $350 billion. By 2026, it had surpassed $5 trillion. Apple’s annual revenue increased from $108 billion in fiscal 2011 to $479 billion in fiscal 2026.

Cook also expanded Apple’s manufacturing footprint beyond China, including increased iPhone production in India. Meanwhile, Apple’s services business, which includes iCloud, Apple Music and the App Store, generated a record $123.3 billion in revenue in fiscal 2026.

By the time Cook retired in 2026, Apple was a much larger and more profitable company than the one he inherited from Jobs.

Uber’s comeback after Travis Kalanick

Uber faced its own leadership crisis in 2017, when co-founder Travis Kalanick was forced out following a series of workplace scandals and regulatory controversies.

Kalanick had helped turn Uber into one of the world’s most valuable startups, capitalizing on the rapid growth of the so-called “gig economy” in the 2010s. Although Uber wasn’t publicly traded, private investors valued the company at roughly $70 billion.

As The Atlantic noted at the time, Uber faced a difficult challenge: reforming its corporate culture without losing the aggressive approach that had helped it grow so quickly.

Dara Khosrowshahi, who had spent 12 years as CEO of Expedia, took over Uber in 2017. He inherited a company facing lawsuits and mounting reputational damage, while also trying to maintain growth ahead of its planned IPO.