Jensen Huang Resigns as Nvidia CEO Following Spy Scandal as Colette Kress Takes Charge

Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang stepped down from his post and surrendered his seat on the board of directors on Thursday, ending a 33-year reign atop the world's preeminent artificial intelligence chipmaker.

Pressure broke the executive suite. The sudden exit followed Huang's admission days earlier that he engaged in an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, an alleged Chinese intelligence operative. With scrutiny mounting across the technology and national security landscapes, the board moved decisively to sever ties with its co-founder.

Colette Kress, the company's executive vice president and chief financial officer, assumed the post of interim chief executive officer with immediate effect. She will balance both executive suites simultaneously—steering daily operational execution and capital management—while the board mounts an expansive search for a permanent chief executive across internal and external candidate pools.

Colette Kress Assumes Operational Helm After 11-Year CFO Tenure

Kress is no newcomer to the pressures of Silicon Valley's balance sheets. She joined Nvidia in September 2013, steering the finance apparatus through the firm's explosive ascent into accelerated computing and generative artificial intelligence. Prior to her 11-year run at Nvidia, Kress spent nearly 25 years directing financial strategy inside major enterprise technology corporations, including Cisco Systems and Microsoft.

She addressed the shock transition directly:

With Huang's ouster, the technology sector witnesses another prominent founder ousted under duress. Huang now joins the ranks of Silicon Valley luminaries like Steve Jobs and Jack Dorsey, who were stripped of executive control at the companies they forged.

Board Overhaul and Harvey Jones Named First-Ever Chair

To stabilize governance, the board restructured its apex authority by appointing venture capitalist and technology executive Harvey C. Jones as its first-ever Chair of the Board. Jones brings more than 30 years of operational and venture governance expertise to the newly created oversight position, having previously served as chief executive officer and executive chairman of electronic design automation heavyweight Synopsys.

Jones moved quickly to project institutional stability to jittery institutional shareholders:

Nvidia confirmed that the boardroom disruption will not alter its regulatory financial calendar. The company is scheduled to report its third-quarter fiscal 2027 financial performance on Tuesday, November 17, at approximately 1:20 p.m. PT, followed by its formal investor earnings call at 2:00 p.m. PT.