Jensen Huang has resigned as president, CEO and a member of NVIDIA’s board, effective immediately, ending a 33-year run at the helm of the company he co-founded. CFO Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor, and Harvey C. Jones has been appointed the company’s first-ever Chair of the Board.
The announcement comes a day after reports that the board was preparing to oust Huang, and after Bloomberg said the board had been working with an outside firm to identify potential replacements and could name a temporary chief. NVIDIA’s announcement does not give a reason for Huang’s departure.
Kress To Run The Company While Staying On As CFO
Kress, who has been NVIDIA’s executive vice president and CFO since September 2013, will keep both roles until a permanent CEO is named. Before NVIDIA, she spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at technology companies including Cisco and Microsoft. The board said it will consider both internal and external candidates for the permanent job.
Kress had been the name that came up most often in speculation about which NVIDIA executives could step in, though analysts had also noted that tech giants rarely pick a finance chief as CEO.
“I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years,” Kress said in the announcement, adding that the company’s focus remains on customers, partners, developers and shareholders.
Harvey Jones Becomes First Board Chair
NVIDIA has never had a board chair before. Jones, who has been an entrepreneur, technology executive and venture investor for over 30 years, will take the new role. He previously served as CEO and Executive Chairman of Synopsys.
Jones said the board has “full confidence” in Kress and the leadership team, and expects NVIDIA’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption. The board and the company also thanked Huang for what they called his “immeasurable contributions” to the company and the industry.
A Week Of Rapid Escalation
Huang’s exit caps a fast-moving few days. On November 8, he admitted in a memo to staff that he had been unfaithful to his wife, and the board opened an independent investigation into reports that he had been targeted by a foreign intelligence effort. That story centred on Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive who U.S. officials believe was a Chinese intelligence asset. The allegations against her are unproven, and China has denied them. At the time, the board said it had confidence in Huang and no reason to believe national security or company secrets had been compromised.
On Wednesday, the New York Times then reported that Huang also had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, NVIDIA’s vice president of healthcare, who reports to him. That report has not been confirmed by NVIDIA, Huang or Powell. NVIDIA’s stock fell nearly 8% in after-hours trading following the report, and odds of a Huang exit jumped to around 80% on prediction markets.
Huang had also withdrawn from public appearances, including the ElevenLabs Summit in New York, and three House Republican committee chairs had asked him to appear for a closed-door briefing by November 18.
What Happens Next
Huang co-founded NVIDIA in 1993 with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, with just $200 in his pocket at incorporation, and led it from a graphics chip maker to the world’s most valuable company. He has never had a successor. The company has no chief operating officer, and about 60 executives reported directly to him. Huang had said earlier this year that his successor would have to reshape the organization to suit themselves.
The first test for the new leadership comes quickly. NVIDIA will report its third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Tuesday, November 17, at about 1:20 p.m. PT, followed by an earnings call at 2 p.m. PT, as previously scheduled. Kress, who is usually the executive investors hear from on these calls, will now be doing so as interim CEO.
This article is based on NVIDIA’s press release announcing the leadership transition. The release does not state a reason for Huang’s resignation. Earlier reports about Huang’s relationships are based on anonymous sources and have not been independently verified, and the allegations about Alice Huang remain unproven.