Finnair Oyj – Finance News Today

The risk of the ‘rockstar CEO’

Finance News — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 07:23:16 +0000

Former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gestures during the Nvidia GTC global AI conference in San Jose, California, March 17, 2026.

Carlos Barria | Reuters

When Jensen Huang quit, it struck me how quickly the conversation shifted from his departure to whether Nvidia could manage without him.

It wasn’t about whether the company had the technology, customers or talent to keep growing, but whether anyone else could do what Huang had been doing for the business. That made me wonder: did investors believe in Nvidia, or just Huang?

The company is hardly short of capable people. Interim CEO and Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress has been with Nvidia since 2013. Nvidia has experienced engineers, established customer relationships and a leading position in the artificial intelligence chip market.

But, listening to guests on CNBC this week, I noticed how much of their concern was about the influence Huang had built outside Nvidia.

On Friday, just a day after Huang quit, Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” how Huang would persuade executives at smaller companies that make critical components to commit capacity to Nvidia. This helped it secure “the majority of supply chain capacity,” he said.

Without Huang, competitors could try to persuade those suppliers to allocate more capacity to them, Patel argued. And so the big question is, how much of Nvidia’s advantage comes from its technology and how much comes from the relationships Huang built?

A rockstar CEO

There are obvious benefits to elevating CEOs to be rockstars. They can attract investors, open doors and give a company a new identity. A charismatic leader attracts attention, reassures investors and makes a company’s strategy easier to sell.

Huang was particularly good at this. He helped shape the conversation about where AI was heading and made Nvidia central to it. Donning his trademark leather jacket, Huang took to stages around the world, courting world leaders to lay out his vision and explain why Nvidia would be at its center.

Before Huang resigned, Eric Ross told “Squawk Box Asia” that Huang “is the company.”

That may sound like an endorsement, but it also helps explain why his departure has raised so many questions.

Bernstein’s Stacy Rasgon made an interesting distinction on the same program, also before Huang’s departure. Nvidia had capable executives who could keep the business running, he said. What was harder to replace was Huang’s vision.

“They need a visionary like that,” he said.

But for a company whose valuation reflects not just what it sells but expectations of what AI could become, replacing that vision may prove harder than replacing the CEO.

Duncan Clark pointed to another part of Huang’s job. He had become a bridge between Silicon Valley, Asia and Washington, and one of the most prominent voices for the wider AI industry.

“I don’t think you can replace him with one individual,” Clark said on “Access Middle East” on Friday. Replacing him with multiple people is “going to take…

Bomb threats disrupts flights across Europe again. Here’s what we know

Finance News — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 15:54:16 +0000

Flights across Europe were targeted by “hoax” bomb threats on Thursday for the second time this week, disrupting air travel across London, Dublin, and Helsinki, among others.

At least 27 different flights were impacted, according to Reuters, with some forced to land unexpectedly and others escorted by fighter jets.

Aer Lingus, Finnair, Wizz Air and Polish airline LOT confirmed to CNBC that some of their flights were affected.

It comes after seven passenger planes across Europe, two departing from the U.K., were targeted by suspected bomb threats on Tuesday and were described as “malicious hoax threats” by the U.K. government.

Finnair said two of its flights — one from Helsinki to Rome with 144 passengers and 7 crew members and another from Helsinki to Vienna with 177 passengers and six crew members — received “unfounded or hoax” bomb threats on Thursday, with both flights landing safely and customers disembarking the aircraft.

Here’s what we know so far

Local authorities in Rome and Vienna inspected the two flights and didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

“Unfortunately, air traffic is sometimes subject to threats, as we have seen this week, when other airlines in Europe have also faced hoax bomb threats,” Finnair said in a statement. “Threats are almost always unfounded.”

Hungarian budget carrier Wizz Air confirmed to CNBC that its flight from Milan’s Malpensa Airport to Bucharest’s Otopeni Airport, as well as another flight to Warsaw, were subject to bomb threats on Thursday.

The flight to Bucharest was approaching its final destination and landed safely when the threat was reported at Otopeni, with security checks subsequently clearing the aircraft. Wizz Air’s Warsaw flight was diverted.

“This incident comes amid a series of similar bomb threats affecting several airlines across Europe in recent days,” Wizz Air told CNBC. “Wizz Air is not the only airline targeted, with other carriers also experiencing threats resulting in flight diversions and security checks.”

Irish airline Aer Lingus diverted its Dublin to Rome flight to Normandy on Thursday morning, while Polish airline LOT said two of its flights from Warsaw received security threats. Both were cleared following security inspections, the airlines told CNBC.

Air France’s CEO Ben Smith said none of its flights were affected, but the coordinated threats are unprecedented. “It’s unfortunate, and we hope it won’t give consumers any reason to slow down or reduce their travel plans.”

U.S. Transport Secretary Sean Duffy told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday that the incidents appeared to be “false attacks.”

He added: “We take safety very seriously, which is why, if you see any issue in the airspace or threats in the airspace, we shut it down…and so, with all of our assets in the U.S. government and our partners over in Europe, we are tracking this together and working together to make sure the American airspace, the American traveler, is safe.”