SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 12, 2026 | Nvidia named Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress interim chief executive on Thursday after co-founder Jensen Huang resigned as president, CEO and board member, effective immediately, the company announced. The board also appointed Harvey C. Jones, a former Synopsys CEO, as its first-ever board chair and said it will search for a permanent CEO, considering both internal and external candidates.
Huang, who led Nvidia as CEO for 33 years, stepped down after reports about his personal relationships triggered investigations by the FBI, the U.S. Congress and Nvidia, Al Jazeera reported. Nvidia did not give a reason for his departure.
What Changes at Nvidia and What Stays the Same
Kress joined Nvidia as executive vice president and CFO in September 2013 and previously spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at technology companies, including Cisco and Microsoft. She will keep the CFO role until a permanent CEO is named. Jones has been an entrepreneur, technology executive and venture investor for more than 30 years and previously served as CEO and executive chairman of Synopsys.
Jones said in the announcement that Kress "has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of extraordinary growth" and that the board has "full confidence in Colette and the leadership team." Kress said her "focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders." The board said it expects operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap to continue without interruption. Nvidia will still report third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at about 1:20 p.m. PT, with its earnings call at 2 p.m. PT.
Investors took the news hard early, then recovered part of the loss. Nvidia shares closed down 4.34% at $166.19 on Thursday after a much steeper drop at the open, according to Yahoo Finance market data, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.39%. Huang owns about 3.6% of the company's stock, Al Jazeera reported.
Why the Leadership Change Matters Beyond Nvidia
Nvidia is not only a chip supplier. It has become one of the industry's biggest financiers. In its July 2026 quarterly report, Nvidia reported $99 billion in equity investments and $25 billion in additional commitments, including deals involving OpenAI, Anthropic, Intel, SpaceX, xAI and CoreWeave, according to a Forbes roundup of its contributors' analysis. Forbes senior contributor Peter Cohan estimated that $35 billion to $110 billion in equity and credit could leave the AI economy over three years if a new CEO cuts Huang's pace of discretionary deals by 30% to 60%. He also noted that Huang had about 60 direct reports, which makes a clean handoff harder. Yahoo Finance noted that Nvidia has pledged up to $10 billion to Anthropic and that Kress now decides how many more such checks to write.
Views on the business impact differ. Forbes contributor Sasirekha Subramanian wrote that a sudden leadership change "gives customers a reason to hedge their bets." Forbes markets contributor Jon Markman argued that "Wall Street is pricing Nvidia for a fundamental collapse when it actually faces a governance shock." Aleksandar Tomic of Boston College told Al Jazeera the departure is a "speed bump," adding: "Nvidia is a strong company with a strong product and this is a sudden event, not a product of corporate struggle."
For companies buying Nvidia hardware or renting cloud capacity built on it, the board's commitment to an unchanged roadmap is the most relevant near-term signal, and Thursday's announcement included no product changes. The larger open question is Nvidia's role as an investor. Its stakes and commitments help fund AI labs and cloud providers that, in turn, buy its chips, so a more cautious approach to that money under new leadership could change financing for those companies. Tuesday's earnings call is the company's next scheduled chance to address it. Our guide to Nvidia competitors covers the rival chipmakers that could benefit if customers diversify.
⭐ Get more AI Business Weekly in Google: add us as a preferred source on Google.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Nvidia's interim CEO?
Colette Kress, Nvidia's chief financial officer since 2013, became interim CEO on Nov. 12, 2026, after Jensen Huang resigned. She will remain CFO until the board names a permanent CEO, and the board says it will consider internal and external candidates.
When does Nvidia report its next earnings?
Nvidia will report third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2026, at about 1:20 p.m. PT, with an earnings call at 2 p.m. PT, as previously scheduled. The board said operations and the product roadmap continue without interruption.