Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO; CFO Colette Kress named interim chief

Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang has resigned as president and chief executive officer and stepped down from the company’s board with immediate effect, the AI chipmaker announced on Thursday. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress has been appointed interim CEO while Nvidia conducts a search for a permanent successor.

Kress, who joined Nvidia as CFO in 2013 after previous roles at Cisco and Microsoft, will continue to hold the finance chief position while serving as interim CEO. Nvidia said it will consider both internal and external candidates for the permanent role. The board also appointed longtime director Harvey C. Jones as Nvidia’s first-ever chairman.

The company did not state a reason for Huang’s resignation. His departure, however, follows days of turmoil over his leadership. Reuters reported on Wednesday that Nvidia’s board had met to consider Huang’s future following reports concerning two extramarital affairs, including one involving a businesswoman alleged to have links to Chinese intelligence. Huang has acknowledged being unfaithful, while the intelligence allegations have not been independently verified.

The controversy had already rattled investors. Nvidia shares fell 7.7% in US premarket trading on Thursday as reports of a possible leadership change spread, while Reuters estimated earlier that the company had lost roughly $600 billion in market value since the investigation into Huang’s relationship became public.

Huang, 63, co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and transformed it from a graphics-chip designer into the dominant supplier of the GPUs underpinning the generative AI boom. Nvidia is now valued at roughly $4 trillion, while its chips have become critical infrastructure for companies building and operating AI models.

His departure also raises an unusually significant succession question. Reuters noted earlier this week that Nvidia had disclosed no clear successor and that Huang maintained an unusually hands-on management structure, with more than 60 executives reporting directly to him. Analysts had identified Kress and senior engineer Ian Buck among the strongest internal possibilities.

Nvidia said its operations, customer commitments and product roadmap are expected to continue without interruption. The company is scheduled to report its third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on November 17, putting Kress in charge just days before one of the technology industry’s most closely watched earnings releases.