Jensen Huang Resigns as Nvidia CEO After 33 Years; Kress Named Interim Chief

Jensen Huang has resigned as president and chief executive of Nvidia with immediate effect, ending a 33-year run at the head of the company he co-founded and built into the centre of the artificial intelligence boom.

Nvidia said on Thursday that its board had accepted Huang’s resignation the previous day. Chief financial officer Colette Kress will serve as interim chief executive while the board searches for a permanent successor, considering candidates from inside and outside the company. The board also named Harvey C. Jones, a former Synopsys chief executive, as its first-ever chair.

Nvidia shares were down nearly 12% in early trading on Thursday. Since Friday, the stock has fallen by as much as 19%, wiping more than $855 billion from the company’s market value, according to TechCrunch. Reuters reported that the shares tumbled more than 12% in early trading, putting the company on course to lose about $500 billion in market value and dragging the broader market lower.

A week of mounting pressure

Huang’s departure follows a turbulent week for the world’s most valuable chipmaker. On 8 November, Nvidia’s board announced an independent investigation into reports that Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation, appointing the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to examine the matter.

At the centre of the reports is Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based cloud computing company. United States intelligence officials reportedly suspect she was recruited by China’s Ministry of State Security to gather information about Nvidia and its artificial intelligence technology. She is no relation to the Nvidia chief executive.

Huang apologised in a company-published message on 8 November for being unfaithful to his wife and pledged to co-operate with the board’s inquiry. Nvidia’s shares fell 4.27% the following day, cutting more than $6.47 billion from Huang’s fortune in a single session, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Then, late on Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Huang had also had an extramarital affair with a company executive, Kimberly Powell, who reported to him. The board met on Wednesday to consider his future, and by Thursday morning the resignation was announced.

The affair allegations are not the only pressure on the company. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons have issued document-preservation demands to the White House, State and Commerce departments over disclosures that Megaspeed purchased more than $4.8 billion in advanced Nvidia AI chips since June 2024, and the Justice Department is investigating whether chips were diverted to China. Shareholders have already sued Nvidia and Huang over the alleged links to a suspected Chinese spy.

Nvidia has said it had “no reason to believe” that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, but that its inquiry would examine all available information. The company’s announcement of Huang’s departure gave no reason for it and did not mention the scandal, instead paying tribute to his record.

“Jensen’s contributions to NVIDIA are profound. NVIDIA is one of the most consequential technology companies in the world. The Board and the company thank Jensen for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry,” the company said in a statement.

Who takes over

Kress has been Nvidia’s chief financial officer since 2013 and will retain the finance role while serving as interim chief executive. She is also an executive vice president of the company.

Jones, a managing partner of Square Wave Ventures and a former chief executive of chip design software firm Synopsys, has sat on Nvidia’s board since 1993. As chair, he is likely to play a central role in the search for a permanent chief executive.

Huang remains the company’s largest individual shareholder, with a stake of about 3.5%, but he holds no supervoting rights, and the board had the power to vote him out at any time. He famously ran a very flat organisation, with around 60 direct reports, and there was no heir apparent or succession plan in place, although two of his children hold executive roles at the company.

What the exit means for the AI boom

Huang’s departure raises immediate questions about the future of Nvidia’s sprawling AI investments, which have helped bankroll the data-centre buildout behind the boom. As of the end of its second quarter, Nvidia reported $99 billion worth of investments and a further $25 billion of commitments, plus $36 billion in cloud service commitments.

The company has invested $2 billion in CoreWeave and a further $2 billion in Nebius this year, and has agreed to provide up to $105 billion in credit guarantees for an OpenAI data-centre campus in Ohio. It has also put $30 billion into OpenAI and $10 billion into Anthropic.

Investors have grown uneasy about the debt being raised across the sector to sustain the infrastructure buildout, and Huang’s exit adds another layer of uncertainty. CoreWeave shares were down about 9% on Thursday, reversing part of a 25% rally the day before, while Nebius fell about 16% and IREN dropped 6.6%.

The industry will get its first glimpse of Nvidia without Huang next week. The company reports its fiscal third-quarter results on Tuesday, 17 November, as scheduled. In its latest reported quarter, ended 26 July, it recorded revenue of $96.2 billion, including $89 billion from data centres.

Frequently asked questions

Why did Jensen Huang resign?

Nvidia announced on Thursday, 12 November that Huang had resigned as president, chief executive and a board member with immediate effect. The company gave no reason. The resignation came days after the board opened an independent investigation into reports of an affair with a woman suspected of spying for China, and a day after The New York Times reported a second affair with a company executive.

Who is Nvidia’s interim CEO?

Colette Kress, Nvidia’s chief financial officer since 2013, will serve as interim chief executive while retaining her finance role. The board will consider internal and external candidates for the permanent job, and has named Harvey C. Jones as its first-ever chair.

When does Nvidia report earnings?

Nvidia will release its fiscal 2027 third-quarter results on Tuesday, 17 November, as scheduled, followed by an earnings call the same day.