Nvidia puts its CFO in charge after Jensen Huang's exit. Apple's 1990s collapse shows what can happen when finance takes over from innovation and vision.

Colette Kress is now Nvidia’s interim CEO. Reuters reports she clashed with Jensen Huang over investments in OpenAI and AI infrastructure companies, including a proposed $250 billion Ohio data center deal that was cut to $120 billion. Nvidia has billions tied up in companies that also buy its chips. That’s a risky business model, but those bets also helped build its AI empire.

Apple spent much of the 1990s losing its way: too many products, falling sales, price competition from Windows PCs and repeated management failures. It cut roughly 4,200 jobs in 1996 and 1997. Steve Jobs returned in 1997, killed off much of the product clutter and refocused the company. The lesson isn’t that CFOs are bad. It’s what happens when protecting the numbers becomes more important than building the next product. Kress is interim CEO, and Nvidia’s board has yet to choose a permanent replacement.