admin
Jensen Huang, the leather-jacketed co-founder who turned Nvidia into the engine of the AI boom, has resigned as the company’s CEO, president and board member, effective immediately. Nvidia’s board announced the move on Thursday, November 12, naming Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim CEO and longtime director Harvey C. Jones as the company’s first-ever board chair. The exit comes just days after the board opened an investigation tied to reports of Huang’s relationship with a businesswoman U.S. intelligence officials suspect of spying for China.
Earlier this week we covered the board’s decision to open an independent investigation into Huang. Today’s announcement ends a 33-year run that began when he co-founded the company in 1993.
Why did Jensen Huang resign from Nvidia?
Nvidia’s official release does not give a reason for the departure, and it does not include any comment from Huang himself. The context, however, has dominated headlines for weeks. The New York Times reported last month that U.S. intelligence officials had concluded that Alice Huang (also known as Huang Le), a former executive at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed International, was passing information to Beijing. She is not related to the Nvidia founder. Megaspeed was an Nvidia customer that built data centers in Southeast Asia.
Over the weekend, according to ABC News and Dow Jones, Huang apologized to Nvidia staff for being unfaithful to his wife, writing that “there is no excuse for what I did.” NBC News reported that the resignation followed reports of multiple extramarital relationships, including one with an executive who reported to him. CBS News and The Wall Street Journal reported that the board had been preparing to oust him before Thursday’s announcement.
It is important to be clear about what has not been established. Nvidia has said it has no reason to believe national security or its confidential information was compromised, no findings of wrongdoing have been announced, and China’s foreign ministry has called the spy allegations “entirely baseless.” Alice Huang and Megaspeed did not respond to earlier requests for comment from several outlets.
Who is Colette Kress, Nvidia’s interim CEO?
Kress has been Nvidia’s executive vice president and CFO since September 2013, and she will keep the finance job while serving as interim chief. Before Nvidia, she spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at companies including Cisco and Microsoft. In the company’s statement, she pledged to build on “the extraordinary foundation Jensen created.” The board says it will consider both internal and external candidates for the permanent role.
New chair Harvey Jones is a veteran tech executive and venture investor who previously served as CEO and executive chairman of chip design software company Synopsys. Nvidia says it expects operations, customer commitments and its product roadmap to continue without interruption.
How did Nvidia stock react?
Investors have been jittery since the investigation began. On Monday, Nvidia shares fell as much as 8% intraday, according to Reuters, before closing around 5% lower. CNN reported another sharp drop of about 10% in premarket trading Thursday after the resignation was announced. For gamers and PC builders, the big question is stability: Nvidia’s GeForce GPUs, DLSS and its chips inside consoles such as the Nintendo Switch 2 all fall under the leadership team Kress now runs.
What happens next for Nvidia?
The first test arrives fast. Nvidia says it will still report third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Tuesday, November 17, followed by an earnings call, where analysts will be listening for any word on the CEO search and the status of the internal investigation. Separately, the House Select Committee on China had asked Huang to appear for a closed-door briefing on November 18; it is unclear whether that will still happen now that he has left the company.
Huang’s exit lands in a huge week for tech and gaming, with GTA 6 preloads now live ahead of its November 19 launch on hardware that leans heavily on the GPU industry Nvidia dominates.
This is a developing story.
Related on Nerdism
- Nvidia Board Investigates Jensen Huang After CEO Admits Affair With Alleged Chinese Spy
- GTA 6 Preloads Are Live: Release Date, Platforms and Everything to Know
- Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake Reviews Are In
Sources: Nvidia (SEC filing), CBS News, NBC News, CNN, Variety, ABC News