Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns, and CFO Colette Kress steps in as interim CEO
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive and board member, effective immediately, the company announced on Thursday, November 12. Chief financial officer Colette Kress is taking over as interim CEO while the board looks for a permanent successor. Nvidia's board calls Huang the company's founder, and Kress credits him with building its foundation over the last 33 years.
Who is running Nvidia now
Kress has been Nvidia's executive vice president and CFO since joining in September 2013. She will keep both of those jobs while serving as interim CEO. Before Nvidia, she spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at companies including Cisco and Microsoft.
The board also named Harvey C. Jones as its first chair. Jones has sat on Nvidia's board since 1993, according to the company's filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and previously served as CEO and executive chairman of Synopsys.
Nvidia says the board will consider both internal and external candidates for the permanent CEO role. It hasn't given a timeline.
"The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team, and we expect the company's operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption," Jones said in Nvidia's announcement.
The board's investigation
The leadership change comes while a board investigation announced earlier in the week is underway. On Sunday, November 8, Nvidia's board said it was opening an independent investigation after news reports that Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. The board said then that it had no reason to believe national security or Nvidia's secrets had been compromised, and that it had confidence in Huang.
The same day, Nvidia published a letter from Huang to employees in which he apologized for being unfaithful to his wife and said he would cooperate fully with the investigation. On Tuesday, November 10, the board's independent members said they had hired former acting US Attorney Joon H. Kim and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to run it.
Neither Nvidia's announcement nor its SEC filing gives a reason for Huang's departure, and neither links it to the investigation. The filing, which refers to him by his full name, Jen-Hsun Huang, says the board accepted his resignation on Wednesday, November 11, a day before the public announcement.
What happens next
Nvidia says it will report results for the third quarter of its 2027 fiscal year on Tuesday, November 17, at about 1:20 p.m. PT, as planned, with an earnings call at 2 p.m. PT. The board hasn't said when it expects to name a permanent CEO or what the investigation has found so far.
What it means for you
Nothing in the announcement changes the Nvidia hardware you already own. Board chair Harvey Jones says he expects the product roadmap and customer commitments to continue without interruption, and Nvidia hasn't announced any change to its products.
Nvidia calls itself the world leader in AI and accelerated computing, and it also makes GeForce graphics cards for PCs. The permanent CEO the board eventually picks will lead both businesses.