Jensen Huang Resigns as Nvidia Chief Executive, and Colette Kress Steps In as Interim CEO
Nvidia’s board of directors announced Thursday that Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive officer and a member of the board, effective immediately. Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and led it for 33 years as the company’s only chief executive. The board accepted his resignation on Wednesday, and the announcement came before Thursday’s market open.
Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim chief executive while keeping her finance job. Kress, 59, has been chief financial officer since September 2013. The board has begun a search for a permanent chief executive and will consider internal and external candidates. The board also appointed longtime director Harvey C. Jones as the company’s first-ever chair of the board. Jones is a former chief executive of Synopsys and has been an Nvidia director since 1993.
Shares plunged more than 13 percent at the open, falling as low as $148.80, before recovering to $164.80 as of 11:41 a.m. Eastern time. That is 5.14 percent below Wednesday’s close of $173.73. As shares fell, the company’s market value briefly dropped below $4 trillion before returning to about $4.07 trillion late in the morning. The stock is down 17.65 percent over the past five sessions and more than 32 percent from its intraday high of $243.37 on Oct. 6. Oppenheimer cut its rating on Nvidia to market perform from outperform on Thursday.
The resignation announcement gave no reason for the departure. The Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed no severance, separation or equity arrangements. “The Board and the company thank Jensen for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry,” the board said in its statement.
The week leading to the resignation moved fast. On Sunday, Nov. 8, Huang told employees in a message that he had been unfaithful to his wife and apologized, and the board said the same day it would investigate whether he had been the target of a foreign intelligence operation. On Nov. 9, President Donald Trump said the Federal Bureau of Investigation was examining the allegations. On Nov. 10, shareholders filed a class action suit over the company’s disclosures.
On Nov. 11, The Wall Street Journal reported that the board was preparing to remove Huang, and The New York Times reported that Huang also had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care. Powell, 48, joined Nvidia in 2008 and reports directly to Huang. The board met on Wednesday night and accepted the resignation at that meeting, according to the 8-K filing.
At the center of the controversy is Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Megaspeed whom US authorities have concluded was a Chinese intelligence asset. The New York Times reported in October that Huang had a close relationship with Alice Huang. Megaspeed, a Singapore cloud company, bought $4.8 billion of Nvidia chips in two years and is under US investigation over allegations it helped China gain access to export-barred AI chips. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department is leading multiple investigations involving Alice Huang.
Reactions split. President Trump wrote on social media that Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, should succeed Huang, writing “A Legend replaces a Legend!” Trump also said Huang had “done a fantastic job.” Senator Elizabeth Warren said the resignation does not absolve Huang or the company of responsibility for putting national security at risk or for any potential violations of the law.
The calendar ahead is set. Nvidia will report fiscal third-quarter 2027 results as scheduled on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at about 1:20 p.m. Pacific time, followed by an earnings call at 2 p.m. Pacific time. Kress told employees she would host a company meeting on Nov. 18. It is not yet known what will happen to the closed-door House briefing with Huang that had been scheduled for Nov. 18.
