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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns; Colette Kress takes interim role

Jensen Huang has resigned as Nvidia’s president, CEO and board member, effective immediately. CFO Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor.

AI.info Team · · fact-checked · against 6 sources ↓ · Published 12 Nov 2026

Jensen Huang has resigned as Nvidia’s president, CEO and board member, effective immediately, the company’s board said on November 12. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while retaining her existing roles as executive vice president and CFO.

The board is beginning a search for a permanent CEO and will consider both internal and external candidates. It also appointed Harvey C. Jones as its first board chair.

Interim leadership

Kress joined Nvidia in September 2013 and has served as executive vice president and CFO since then. Before joining the company, she spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at technology companies including Cisco and Microsoft.

At Cisco, she spent three years as senior vice president and CFO of its Business Technology and Operations Finance organization, with responsibilities that included financial strategy, planning and reporting. She also spent 13 years at Microsoft, including four years as CFO of its Server and Tools division.

Jones has been an entrepreneur, technology executive and venture investor for more than 30 years, including as CEO and executive chairman of Synopsys. In the transition announcement, he said the board had “full confidence” in Kress and the leadership team and expected operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap to continue without interruption.

Kress said her focus remained on customers, partners, developers and shareholders. She also said she was committed to building on the foundation Huang created at Nvidia.

Investigation preceded departure

Huang’s resignation follows an independent investigation initiated by the board after reports that he had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. On November 8, the board said a committee of independent directors, assisted by outside independent counsel, would oversee the inquiry.

At the time, the board said it had no reason to believe that national security or Nvidia secrets had been compromised, but that the inquiry would examine available information. The independent directors said on November 10 that they had retained former acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Joon H. Kim and his firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, to conduct the investigation.

In a November 8 email to employees published by Nvidia, Huang acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife and apologized to his family and colleagues. He also said he supported the board’s investigation and would cooperate fully.

The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence officials had previously determined that a senior Chinese executive at a Singapore-based data centre, named as Alice Huang, was passing information to Beijing. China’s Foreign Ministry rejected the report as groundless speculation.

Results remain scheduled

Nvidia is scheduled to report its third-quarter fiscal 2027 financial results on Tuesday, November 17, at approximately 1:20 p.m. Pacific time. The company’s earnings call is set to follow at 2 p.m. Pacific time.