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During her first week at Nvidia in 2013, Colette Kress asked Jensen Huang how long he thought he would want her as his finance chief. Huang recalled his answer on a podcast this year: “For as long as we shall live and death do us part.” She arrived after nearly 25 years in finance roles at technology companies including Cisco and Microsoft, joining a company still best known for gaming graphics chips.
On Thursday, she was running the company.
Nvidia’s board announced Huang’s immediate resignation as president and CEO, and from his board seat, naming Kress interim chief executive while she remains CFO. The company must now run without the co-founder it was organized around, five days before its Nov. 17 earnings report, with its shares down more than 13 percent at Thursday’s open.
What Changed
- Jensen Huang resigned on Nov. 12 as Nvidia's president, CEO and director, effective immediately, after acknowledging an affair with a Megaspeed executive whom U.S. intelligence officials believe worked for Chinese intelligence.
- Finance chief Colette Kress is interim CEO and stays CFO; Harvey C. Jones, a director since 1993, becomes the board's first-ever chair.
- Nvidia shares fell more than 13 percent at Thursday's open; about $2 trillion in market value has gone since the Oct. 6 closing high.
- The board has not said what its Wachtell-led investigation found, and Nvidia still reports third-quarter results on Nov. 17.
AI-generated summary, reviewed by an editor. More on our AI guidelines.
The investigation
The departure followed Huang’s acknowledgment to employees on Sunday that he had been unfaithful to his wife. “There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry,” he wrote. The affair involved Alice Huang, no relation, a senior executive at Singapore-based Nvidia customer Megaspeed whom U.S. intelligence officials believe worked for Chinese intelligence. China denies the espionage claims, calling them smears; Alice Huang has not responded to requests for comment.
Huang denied compromising national security or company secrets. The board opened an investigation led by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported, citing five people who worked at Nvidia, that Huang also had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, its vice president of health care, who reports to him. Both are married to other people. Powell did not respond to requests for comment. Nvidia’s conduct code tells employees to “avoid situations where our actions create conflict,” including “personal relationships.” Neither Nvidia nor Powell has confirmed the relationship.
The board has not said what the investigation found or whether it is finished. Thursday’s release gave no reason for the resignation and did not quote Huang. “Jensen’s contributions to NVIDIA are profound,” the board said.
Kress joined in September 2013 after Huang interviewed 22 candidates. She holds a finance degree from the University of Arizona and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. Nvidia’s annual revenue rose from $4.28 billion in 2013 to $215.9 billion in its most recent fiscal year. Its latest annual report lists her holding roughly 4.44 million shares, worth about $772 million.
On earnings calls, she often details customer demand and supply constraints. Patrick Moorhead, chief analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, called her “the logical choice.”
“She has credibility with investors because she answers hard questions directly,” he said.
A former Nvidia executive, speaking anonymously, said she “can step into the [CEO] role immediately without needing any guidance.” The same person said she lacks Huang’s engineering depth and has avoided public attention. “In my conversations with her, she goes deep on the product roadmap, from rack-scale systems to networking and software,” Moorhead said.
A board that never had a chair
Alongside Kress, the board appointed Harvey C. Jones its first-ever chair. Jones has been a director since Nvidia’s founding in 1993. A former CEO and executive chairman of chip-design software company Synopsys, he co-founded Daisy Systems and Tensilica and has been managing partner at investment firm Square Weave Ventures since 2004.
“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.
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Huang, 63, is Nvidia’s largest shareholder, owning about 3.6 percent of the company. He ran the company with roughly 60 direct reports and no traditional chief operating officer. Even executive vice presidents have not necessarily controlled their own budgets, leaving few people with Kress’s understanding of the finances.
Huang has said he does not believe in succession planning, preferring leaders to pass on knowledge continuously. Nvidia’s latest proxy statement warns that it is “highly dependent on the services of our longstanding executive team” and that ineffective succession planning could “hinder our strategic planning, execution, and long-term success.”
The board will consider internal and external candidates for a permanent CEO. Internal names floated include Ian Buck, who created Nvidia’s CUDA software platform, and Jeff Fisher, who joined in 1994 and later led its GeForce business.
Dan Ives, an analyst at Yorkville Ives & Co., expects Kress to hold the interim job for about a year.
“To steady the ship, she’s the one,” he said. “But longer term, probably someone from the outside.”
RBC analysts cut their stock forecast, questioning whether any successor could reproduce Huang’s technical vision and relationships across the industry while serving as its public face.
The market
Before the resignation, Gavin Baker, chief investment officer of Atreides Management, wrote that Nvidia’s board “should wait for the results of the investigation before ousting Jensen.” Elon Musk agreed and separately said hiring Huang “would be an honor.”
Musk’s businesses have financial ties to Nvidia. SpaceX is among Nvidia’s largest customers, and Nvidia invested in it through Musk’s xAI. Musk said in August that SpaceX would use Nvidia exclusively for its AI computing systems.
Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire called Huang “irreplaceable for America’s AI leadership.”
Bernstein analysts took the other side, downgrading the shares and cutting their price target. “We’ve had enough, and prefer to watch from the sidelines,” they wrote. Wells Fargo and Mizuho maintained bullish views despite the prospect of Huang leaving.
Nvidia shares fell more than 13 percent at Thursday’s open, taking its market value below $4 trillion. At the open, the stock was on pace for its worst day since January 2025.
Wednesday’s closing price of $173.73 compared with a closing high of $239.24 on Oct. 6. By Thursday morning, roughly $2 trillion in market value had disappeared since that peak, including more than $740 billion since the previous Friday’s close. The shares were headed for a sixth consecutive weekly decline, their longest such run since 2012.
Nvidia accounts for about 6 percent of the S&P 500. Shares of specialist AI cloud providers, which depend heavily on Nvidia’s chips, fell Thursday. Nvidia’s chip rivals Broadcom gained nearly 5 percent and AMD more than 3 percent, while suppliers TSMC, which manufactures Nvidia’s designs, and equipment maker ASML fell nearly 2 percent and 3 percent, respectively. Markets in South Korea and Taiwan also declined.
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The financing commitments
Nvidia’s role as “the central bank of AI” describes financial commitments alongside its chip business. The company helps customers buy its processors and backstops leases, putting its own finances behind parts of the data-center construction it supplies. Its obligations to other firms are estimated at $400 billion.
That means a customer can depend on Nvidia for financing as well as hardware. If Nvidia becomes less willing or able to support those arrangements, the effect can reach customers’ spending plans and the firms expecting to receive their payments.
“He’s Mr. AI. He speaks for the industry,” said Jeff Christian, CEO of executive search firm Christian and Timbers. “He’s connected financially to everybody either through partnerships, or through lending the money to buy chips.”
Federal Reserve officials and other regulators are watching those connections but do not currently see imminent danger to the financial system. Sheila Bair, a former regulator who served during the financial crisis, said Nvidia is not “too big to fail in a bank sense at all.”
The questions waiting for Kress
Kress also inherits scrutiny of sales to China and Megaspeed. In 2023, she told analysts China accounted for 20 to 25 percent of Nvidia’s data-center revenue. She has said export restrictions risk strengthening Chinese competitors.
Nvidia put Megaspeed on an internal block list in June 2025, a step the company says prohibited further sales or shipments. In the quarter ended July 2025, Singapore accounted for $10.2 billion, or 22 percent, of Nvidia’s revenue.
The following quarter, Nvidia changed its geographic reporting from customers’ billing locations to their headquarters. Singapore disappeared from the breakdown. A spokesman declined to say where Megaspeed sales were classified under either method. The filings do not establish a connection between the reporting change and the block, or show what Kress knew about Megaspeed’s dealings.
Huang had persuaded President Trump to roll back restrictions on chip sales to China. Trump defended him this week as an “honorable man” and said Huang told him he had not known Alice Huang was an intelligence operative.
“We need to know why the Commerce Department was allowing Nvidia to sell advanced chips to the company of the woman he was having an affair with,” Sen. John Kennedy said Wednesday.
Rep. Brian Mast, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he may subpoena Huang. The Justice Department is leading multiple investigations involving Alice Huang.
Minutes before the resignation news, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said “we want the crown jewels to remain in U.S. hands or in the hands of our allies.” Beijing has characterized the scandal as part of American efforts to impose a technology “blockade” on China. Trump is scheduled to visit China next week and said Monday he did not plan to discuss the Nvidia matter with Xi Jinping.
Kress said Thursday she was “committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years.” Nvidia will still report third-quarter results on Nov. 17 at approximately 1:20 p.m. Pacific time, followed by the earnings call at 2 p.m.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Jensen Huang resign as Nvidia CEO?
Nvidia's release gave no reason. The resignation followed Huang's Sunday admission that he had been unfaithful to his wife, in an affair with Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive whom U.S. intelligence officials believe worked for Chinese intelligence, and a report that he also had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, an executive who reports to him. China denies the espionage claims.
Who is running Nvidia now?
Colette Kress, Nvidia's chief financial officer since September 2013, is interim CEO and keeps the CFO job. The board will consider internal and external candidates for a permanent chief executive.
Who is Harvey C. Jones?
Jones, a Nvidia director since the company's founding year of 1993, is the board's first-ever chair. He is a former CEO and executive chairman of Synopsys, co-founded Daisy Systems and Tensilica, and has run Square Weave Ventures since 2004.
How did Nvidia's stock react?
The shares fell more than 13 percent at Thursday's open, pushing Nvidia's market value below $4 trillion. Wednesday's close of $173.73 compared with a closing high of $239.24 on Oct. 6, a loss of roughly $2 trillion in value.
What happens next at Nvidia?
Nvidia reports third-quarter results on Nov. 17. The board's Wachtell-led investigation has not reported findings, Rep. Brian Mast has said he may subpoena Huang, and the Justice Department is leading multiple investigations involving Alice Huang.
AI-generated summary, reviewed by an editor. More on our AI guidelines.
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Marcus Schuler
Editor-in-Chief and founder of Implicator.ai. Former ARD correspondent and senior broadcast journalist with 10+ years covering tech. Writes daily briefings on policy and market developments. Based in San Francisco. E-mail: editor@implicator.ai
