Jensen Huang Resigns as Nvidia CEO With Immediate Effect: Colette Kress Named Interim CEO as Shares Plunge

Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO — the company confirmed on Thursday, November 12, 2026, that its co-founder has stepped down as president, chief executive officer and a member of the board with immediate effect, ending a 33-year run at the helm of the AI chip giant. Chief financial officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor, and Nvidia shares plunged more than 12% in premarket trading on the news.

What Nvidia Announced About Jensen Huang's Resignation

Nvidia's board announced the decision in a short statement on Thursday. "The Board of Directors announced today that Jensen Huang has resigned as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board, effective immediately," the statement said. "Colette Kress, current Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NVIDIA, has agreed to serve as Interim Chief Executive Officer." Kress keeps her finance role while leading the company.

The board said it has begun a search for a permanent chief executive, considering both internal and external candidates, and appointed Harvey C. Jones — a former chief executive and executive chairman of chip design software firm Synopsys — as its first-ever chair. The company's statement thanked Huang for his "immeasurable contributions" to the company and the industry, but it gave no reason for his departure, and Huang himself made no comment in the announcement.

The Reports That Led to Jensen Huang's Resignation

The resignation follows a week of damaging reports about Huang's personal life. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported that Huang had two extramarital affairs — one with Alice Huang, a businesswoman and former senior executive at Singapore-based data-centre company Megaspeed, whom US intelligence agencies suspect of gathering information for Beijing, and a second with Kimberly Powell, an Nvidia vice president who oversees the company's healthcare business and reports to Huang. Alice Huang is not related to Jensen Huang. The New York Times reported that US officials concluded she was working for Chinese intelligence. Huang has said he had no idea she was a spy.

Huang admitted on Sunday, November 8, that he had been unfaithful to his wife, apologising to his wife, children and Nvidia employees. That same day, the board said it had no reason to believe national security or Nvidia secrets had been compromised and expressed confidence in Huang and his leadership team. But the board met on Wednesday, November 11, to consider his removal, according to a person familiar with the matter, and by Thursday morning he was gone. A shareholder lawsuit was also filed earlier in the week, and Bloomberg reported the board had hired an external search firm to look at succession options.

The pressure had also become political. Democratic senators asked the Trump administration to preserve documents tied to Nvidia's chip exports to China and to Huang's relationship with the suspected intelligence asset, while Republicans in the House called on Huang to brief lawmakers and said they were open to using subpoenas.

Colette Kress: Who Is Nvidia's Interim CEO?

Colette Kress has been Nvidia's chief financial officer since joining the company in September 2013, and she has led its finance operations through the AI boom that made Nvidia one of the world's most valuable companies. She is far less well known than Huang, but analysts had already named her as the obvious interim choice: Citi analyst Atif Malik wrote that Kress "could serve as interim CEO while the board evaluates external candidates." Whether she is also a candidate for the permanent job is not yet clear — Barron's reported there is "no clear candidate" to replace Huang.

Nvidia Shares Plunge and What Happens Next

Investors reacted fast. Nvidia shares fell 12.5% to $152.02 in premarket trading on Thursday, according to Barron's, deepening a slide that began when the reports first emerged. Huang co-founded the company in 1993, building a gaming chip startup into the AI industry's dominant supplier, and he is its largest individual shareholder, with about 3.4% of outstanding shares. His exit leaves the company without the leader investors have long treated as irreplaceable — Nvidia's own proxy statement warns it is highly dependent on its longstanding executive team, and Huang has said he does not believe in succession planning.

The next test comes quickly. Nvidia will report its third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Tuesday, November 17, as previously scheduled, followed by an earnings call at 2 p.m. PT — the first results call of the post-Huang era. The bigger question is the permanent succession: the board will consider internal and external candidates, analysts at Baird favour an outside hire, and the process will be overseen by the board's new chair, Harvey C. Jones. Whoever takes the job inherits the most powerful position in AI hardware — and the scrutiny that now comes with it.