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

NVIDIA announced on Thursday, November 12, that Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive officer and a member of the board, effective immediately, ending 33 years at the helm of the company he co-founded in 1993. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor, and former Synopsys chief Harvey Jones becomes the board's first-ever chair. The resignation follows a week of scandal — an affair with a Chinese businesswoman US authorities suspect of spying for Beijing, and a second affair with a senior Nvidia executive — and a board meeting on Wednesday that weighed his ouster. Nvidia shares fell almost 8% in premarket trading.

Nahid Joy

Nov 12, 2026 - 20:09

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang smiles on stage, wearing his signature black leather jacket over a black shirt, with a blurred presentation screen behind him.

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

Jensen Huang has resigned as chief executive of Nvidia, ending a 33-year run at the company he co-founded in 1993 and built into the most valuable in the world. NVIDIA announced on Thursday, November 12, that Huang has stepped down as president, chief executive officer and a member of the board, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO, and the board has named former Synopsys chief Harvey Jones as its first-ever chair.

The resignation is the end of a week in which the most admired chief executive in technology fell from grace with remarkable speed. It comes after reports of two extramarital affairs — one with a Chinese businesswoman US authorities suspect of spying for Beijing, and a second with a senior Nvidia executive — and a board meeting on Wednesday at which directors weighed whether to remove him. Nvidia's shares fell almost 8% in premarket trading on Thursday, extending a slide that began when the scandal broke.

What Nvidia announced

The company's statement, issued on Thursday, was short and gave no reason for Huang's departure. It said Kress, who has been Nvidia's executive vice president and chief financial officer since joining the company in September 2013, had agreed to serve as interim chief executive and would continue as CFO while the board searches for a permanent successor. The board said it would consider internal and external candidates.

Jones, who has been an entrepreneur, technology executive and venture investor for more than 30 years and served as chief executive and executive chairman of Synopsys, was appointed as the board's first-ever chair. In the statement, Jones said Kress "has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position," adding that 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."

Kress said she was "committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years," and that the company would "continue advancing the work that has made NVIDIA a leader in accelerated computing and AI." The statement thanked Huang for his "immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry."

Nvidia said it would still report its third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Tuesday, November 17, as previously scheduled, followed by its earnings call — a report that will now be delivered by a new interim chief executive, and that investors will watch closely for any sign of how the transition affects the business.

How a week of scandal ended a 33-year run

The crisis began on October 29, when The New York Times reported that Huang had developed a close relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman — no relation — whom US intelligence agencies suspect of spying for Beijing. The report connected the Nvidia chief to a Chinese chip-smuggling investigation involving a company called Megaspeed, which allegedly diverted advanced Nvidia AI chips to China in violation of US export controls. The Justice Department is now leading multiple investigations involving Alice Huang, according to people familiar with the matter.

On Sunday, November 8, Huang acknowledged in a message to Nvidia employees that he had been unfaithful to his wife, Lori Huang, and apologised to his family, colleagues, partners and shareholders. "There is no excuse for what I did," he wrote. The board said the same day that it had confidence in Huang and his leadership team, and opened an independent investigation into the affair allegations, overseen by independent directors with outside counsel. At that point, the board said it had no reason to believe US national security or Nvidia secrets had been compromised.

The position became untenable on Wednesday, November 11, when reports emerged of a second affair — this time with a senior Nvidia executive who reported directly to Huang. The revelation, coming on top of the spy scandal, sealed his fate. The board was urgently convened on Wednesday evening to consider his ouster, and by Thursday morning the resignation was announced — a sharp reversal from the vote of confidence the board had given him on Sunday.

The political pressure had also been building all week. Senator Kevin Cramer publicly called on Huang to resign, and House Republicans demanded he testify before Congress, floating a subpoena if he refused. The chairs of the House committees on China, foreign affairs and intelligence have since written to Huang requesting a joint, closed-door briefing on November 18. Meanwhile, reporting by Axios revealed that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had stalled the Trump administration's effort to tighten restrictions on Nvidia's chip sales to China, raising questions about the administration's relationship with Huang, who had cultivated close ties with President Donald Trump.

What happens next

Kress takes over a company in the middle of the AI boom it created, but facing its first serious test of confidence. Nvidia is worth around $4 trillion, and its chips power most of the world's AI systems, yet its shares have fallen sharply in the past two weeks — down 8.6% in after-hours trading on Wednesday to $159, and almost 8% more in premarket trading on Thursday. The sell-off reflects not just the scandal but the deeper question it raises: whether the AI trade that made Nvidia so valuable can survive without the man who built it.

Huang, 63, is Nvidia's fourth-largest investor, with a stake of about 3.61%, and he will exit the board as well as the chief executive's office. He had planned to remain at the helm for at least another 20 years and had not prepared a succession plan — Nvidia's own proxy statement warns that the company is "highly dependent on the services of our longstanding executive team" and that a failure to ensure effective succession planning could hinder its strategy. The board's search for a permanent successor, considering both internal and external candidates, will now be one of the most watched CEO hunts in corporate history.

For now, the immediate tests are close at hand: the November 17 earnings report, the November 18 congressional briefing, and the continuing Justice Department investigations into the smuggling ring. The board has said operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap will continue without interruption. Whether investors believe that will become clear when markets open.

For the story so far, see our earlier reports on the Nvidia board weighing Huang's future, the New York Times report on Huang and Kimberly Powell, the House demand for Huang to testify, Lutnick stalling the chip crackdown, Trump's ties to Huang and our timeline of how the scandal unfolded.