Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO; finance chief Colette Kress named interim chief

Jensen Huang has resigned as chief executive of Nvidia, the company he co-founded. His resignation took effect immediately. Nvidia announced it in a company statement on Thursday.

Nvidia named chief financial officer Colette Kress as interim CEO. She will keep her finance role. The board is searching for a permanent CEO. According to The Hindu and The Guardian, it is considering internal and external candidates. The reports do not give a timeline.

The resignation came after reports that Huang had an extramarital affair with a woman alleged to be a Chinese spy. According to The Hindu, Nvidia's announcement did not address Huang's relationships. The reports reviewed by Vocemundi do not quote Huang on the affairs.

Kress joined Nvidia in 2013 as chief financial officer. Nvidia has a market value of about $4 trillion. On Thursday, Kress said Nvidia's "strength has always come from its people", The Guardian reported. She spoke of "building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years". The Guardian also reported that during a meeting this past summer, Huang called Kress "a deer in the headlights", according to a person familiar with the comments who spoke to the Wall Street Journal.

According to The Hindu, the woman is Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based cloud company Megaspeed, whom U.S. authorities have concluded was a Chinese intelligence asset. The reports do not name those authorities or describe the evidence. The two are not related, The Hindu says. The reports do not include responses from Alice Huang or Megaspeed.

The Hindu also reports that Huang apologised for being unfaithful. It says the board launched a probe earlier this month into whether he had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation. The reports do not describe its findings. According to The Hindu, Nvidia shares fell 10% in premarket trading on Thursday.

What is disputed

Accounts differ on the number of affairs. The Hindu, citing the New York Times, describes a second affair with Kimberly Powell, an Nvidia vice president who reported to Huang. The Guardian refers to two allegations involving employees. The reports do not identify a second employee.

What each side says

On Sunday, 8 November 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump said Huang had "done an amazing job for our country", according to The Hindu. Trump said Huang told him he had no idea the woman was a spy. Beijing denies that Alice Huang is a spy, The Hindu reports. The Guardian quoted new board chair Harvey C Jones as saying: "The board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team." Analyst Anshel Sag of Moor Insights and Strategy said the interim appointment "makes sense to keep the markets calm", but questioned whether Kress is the long-term visionary Nvidia needs, according to The Guardian.

Analysis

The leadership change comes at a sensitive moment for one of the world's most valuable companies. According to The Guardian, Nvidia is due to report quarterly earnings next Tuesday, which may offer a first view of how investors respond. The board's choice between an internal or external successor could signal whether it favours continuity or change. Sunny Cheung, an analyst at the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, said Kress could face congressional questions about the company's oversight of chip sales, The Guardian reported. The South China Morning Post assesses that the case could raise the odds of tighter U.S. export controls on China. Much depends on findings not yet described in the reports, including the outcome of the board's probe.

Produced by the Vocemundi newsroom with AI assistance.