Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia hands interim reins to Colette Kress
Nvidia’s finance chief will hold both jobs while the board hunts for a permanent CEO, days after launching an investigation into reports of a foreign intelligence effort targeting Huang.
Jensen Huang has resigned as Nvidia’s president, chief executive and board member, putting finance chief Colette Kress in charge of the chipmaker on an interim basis.
Nvidia announced the departures on 12 November 2026, effective immediately. Kress will retain her chief financial officer role while the board searches for a permanent CEO, considering candidates from inside and outside the company.
The leadership change comes four days after Nvidia’s board announced an independent investigation into reporting that Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence effort. The company’s transition announcement does not give a reason for his resignation.
Nvidia also appointed Harvey C. Jones, a former Synopsys chief executive and executive chairman, as its first board chair.
The company is pitching continuity. In its announcement, Jones said the board had full confidence in Kress and the leadership team, adding: “we expect the company’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption.”
That is the board’s expectation, not independent confirmation that the upheaval will leave Nvidia’s business untouched.
Kress joined Nvidia in September 2013 and has led its finance organisation through its growth. According to the company, she previously spent nearly 25 years in technology finance roles, including at Cisco and Microsoft.
The investigation remains a separate, unresolved issue. In its 8 November statement, Nvidia said a committee of independent directors, assisted by outside independent counsel, would oversee the inquiry.
At that point, the board said it had “no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised”. It also expressed confidence in Huang and said he supported the review and had committed to cooperating. Neither supplied company statement provides investigation findings.
An iTnews report published on 13 November linked Huang’s exit to allegations of two extramarital affairs, including one involving a woman suspected of acting for Chinese intelligence. Those allegations appear in the secondary news account, not as findings in Nvidia’s supplied statements. The report said Beijing had denied the espionage allegation.
The same account identified longtime Nvidia engineer Ian Buck as a potential permanent successor discussed by investors and analysts, alongside Kress. Nvidia itself has not named a shortlist.
For now, the confirmed change is stark: Huang is out of both management and the board, Kress is carrying the CEO and CFO responsibilities, and Jones is chairing the board. The succession search and the intelligence-related inquiry leave two major questions open at a company central to the AI computing boom.