Jensen Huang has resigned with immediate effect as chairman, CEO, and member of the board of Nvidia, the company he co-founded and led for 33 years. Colette Kress, executive vice president and chief financial officer, is taking over as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent replacement.
The resignation came after media reports about Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, an executive linked to Megaspeed whom U.S. authorities suspect of working for China, and a second relationship with a Nvidia executive. The company had opened an investigation into the first case; news of the second relationship, reported Wednesday by The New York Times, increased the pressure before the board met to discuss the CEO’s future.
Kress takes the helm as the search for a successor begins
The replacement is temporary: Nvidia has begun searching for a permanent CEO and will consider internal and external candidates, according to the company statement reported by ABC News and Vida Extra. Kress will lead the company until the board appoints a permanent successor. The board also named Harvey C. Jones as its first chairman.
Jones, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, had spent more than 30 years working and investing in the technology sector, according to Los Angeles Times and Vida Extra. Punto Informatico identifies him as the former CEO of Synopsys. The Italian publication also says the changes were reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“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”
— Harvey Jones, chairman of Nvidia’s board
The board did not mention the espionage reports or revelations about Huang’s personal life in its statement. Instead, it thanked him for his contributions to Nvidia and the industry. The company, which designs chips used to train artificial intelligence models, is now entering a period of transition with Kress leading operations.
The stock fell sharply after the departure became known, although the reported figures vary depending on the time and trading period covered by each outlet.
| Outlet | Reported decline | Impact described |
|---|---|---|
| ABC News | More than 13% in early trading | — |
| Los Angeles Times | 14% at the start of the session | — |
| The Guardian | 13% at the opening of Wall Street; later, down 7% in the morning | More than $320 billion lost that day and more than $600 billion over the week |
| Punto Informatico | 14% | More than $600 billion in market capitalization lost |
The Guardian put Nvidia’s valuation at around $3.9 trillion after the decline. TechCrunch estimated it at around $3.8 trillion, as did Punto Informatico. The estimates were published at different times and do not necessarily reflect the same point in the trading session.
Who is Colette Kress?
Kress has worked at Nvidia since September 2013, according to the company biography cited by TechCrunch. Before that, she was senior vice president and CFO of Cisco’s Business Technology Operations Finance organization for three years. She also spent 13 years at Microsoft, where she served as CFO of the Server and Tools division for four years.
She studied finance at the University of Arizona and earned an MBA from Southern Methodist University, according to TechCrunch. The same publication notes that she is 59 and maintains a low profile on social media. As finance chief, however, she was a familiar presence on Nvidia’s earnings calls and was well known to analysts who follow the company.
Her work went beyond the numbers, according to WIRED. On earnings calls, Kress discussed financial results, customer demand, and supply constraints; she also talked about product development, from rack-scale systems to networking and software. Patrick Moorhead, founder and chief analyst at Moor Insights & Strategies, told WIRED: “Colette is the logical choice”. He added that her credibility with investors comes from answering difficult questions directly.
TechCrunch reports that, according to Forbes’ list of America’s richest self-made women, Kress’s net worth is estimated at around $1.2 billion. The Forbes profile cited by the outlet says her two children encouraged her to join Nvidia because of their interest in video games, at a time when the company was better known for its gaming graphics cards.
Huang personally recruited her in 2013, according to WIRED, which cites an interview Kress gave to the Israeli business newspaper Globes. In that conversation, she explained that Huang laid out his vision on a whiteboard for transforming Nvidia into a major provider of computing infrastructure for artificial intelligence. Kress said at the time: “One of the things we don’t focus on is the stock price. We focus on our investors and how we would like to innovate”.
WIRED quotes a former Nvidia executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, who described her as capable of taking on the role immediately and familiar with how Huang thinks. The source also noted a difference from the outgoing CEO: Kress does not have the same technical and engineering experience and has avoided putting herself in the public spotlight. The outlet adds that Nvidia’s structure meant dozens of executives reported directly to Huang and that the company did not have a traditional chief operating officer.
The relationships that preceded the resignation
The first case centers on Alice Huang, an entrepreneur and executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based data center company. She is not related to Jensen Huang. The Guardian says U.S. intelligence authorities suspect her of being a Chinese asset; Los Angeles Times reports that, according to the New York Times, she allegedly passed information to Beijing. Huang has denied knowing that she worked for the Chinese government.
Los Angeles Times says Nvidia had stated that it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets had been compromised. The company said its investigation would examine all available information. According to The Guardian, the board hired Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct a “thorough and independent” investigation into the relationship. The firm was retained early that week and, according to the same outlet, the board had asked Huang to continue leading Nvidia while the inquiry was underway.
On Sunday, Huang admitted to being unfaithful to his wife, although he did not mention Alice Huang directly, according to The Guardian. The newspaper adds that Nvidia had previously denied anything unusual about the relationship. Los Angeles Times places the announcement of an FBI investigation on Sunday, attributing it to U.S. President Donald Trump; the same newspaper says Nvidia had also opened its own investigation.
The second reported relationship involves Kimberly Powell, identified by The Guardian as president of Nvidia’s healthcare division. The New York Times reported Wednesday that Powell was a company employee who reported to Huang. The Guardian added that, according to the report, the two were seen showing affection in a video recorded at a hotel during a Nvidia conference in March. Vida Extra describes her as a Nvidia vice president; the outlets do not use exactly the same title.
The Associated Press, cited by Los Angeles Times, said it had been unable to independently verify the reports. The Guardian reported that Powell had been asked for comment. TechCrunch described the reports about the two relationships as the context for the departure, but did not independently confirm the allegations.
The Megaspeed connection and export controls
The investigation also concerns chip exports to China. The Guardian reported that U.S. authorities were examining whether a company linked to Alice Huang had helped Chinese companies evade export controls through its subsidiaries. Los Angeles Times noted that Megaspeed had been accused the previous year of illegally shipping advanced Nvidia chips to China; in December, the company said there was no evidence of such exports. Singapore had also announced an investigation into the allegations.
In its first public statement on the case, Megaspeed International said Thursday that it takes compliance with U.S. export control laws “extremely seriously”. Its chairman and CEO, Tan Yong Pong, also known as James Tan, said the company wanted to cooperate transparently with the U.S. government, according to Los Angeles Times.
Megaspeed said it had cooperated with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, which enforces national security restrictions on technology exports, and was willing to work with other authorities. It also hired a U.S. law firm to compile an inventory of its chips and verify its export controls, according to the statement reproduced by Los Angeles Times.
Megaspeed’s financial data also drew attention: corporate filings in Singapore cited by Los Angeles Times show that its total assets grew roughly 90-fold between the end of 2023 and 2024, reaching nearly $3 billion. Its revenue exceeded $294 million in 2024, compared with none in 2023.
The relationship between Nvidia and Megaspeed is relevant to the company because both operate in the data center and chip sectors. Los Angeles Times noted that Megaspeed promoted a partnership with Nvidia on its website. Huang, for his part, had argued in Washington for easing restrictions on sales of Nvidia chips to China. In January, according to the same outlet, Trump approved the sale of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China.
Reactions and next steps
Trump voiced his support for Huang, according to The Guardian, saying he had done “an incredible job” and was “an honorable guy”. The newspaper also reported that prominent figures in technology, including Elon Musk, backed the outgoing CEO. These reports do not specify the terms or extent of that support.
The search for a permanent successor is underway, but no decision date has been announced. Punto Informatico names as possible candidates Ian Buck, Nvidia’s vice president of high-performance computing and hyperscale businesses; Rene Haas, a former Nvidia executive and current CEO of Arm; Johny Srouji, Apple’s head of hardware; and Lisa Su, AMD’s CEO and Huang’s cousin. WIRED cites two other names: Ian Buck and Jeff Fisher, Nvidia’s senior vice president associated with the GeForce unit. These are names presented by those outlets as possible candidates, not as an official company list.
The next immediate event will be the earnings announcement: Nvidia was scheduled to publish its quarterly results the following Tuesday, according to TechCrunch. Vida Extra specifies that these are the results for the third quarter of fiscal 2027 and gives the date as Tuesday, November 17. Kress is expected to discuss the company’s immediate plans then.
Huang’s departure ends his 33 years as CEO and co-founder with immediate effect, but it does not yet resolve who will permanently fill the role. While the board evaluates internal and external candidates, Kress takes charge of a company valued at around $3.8 trillion or $3.9 trillion, according to published estimates.
Sources: TechCrunch, Vida Extra, Punto Informatico, ABC News, the Guardian, WIRED, Los Angeles Times
