Jensen Huang Resigns as Nvidia CEO; CFO Colette Kress Named Interim CEO

Quick answer: Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia’s president, CEO and board member on November 12. CFO Colette Kress is interim CEO and will also stay on as CFO. Former Synopsys CEO Harvey C. Jones became the board’s first Chair. The board will consider internal and external candidates for the permanent role, and Nvidia still plans to report third-quarter results on November 17.

What Nvidia announced

In its CEO transition announcement, Nvidia said Huang resigned as president, chief executive officer and a member of the board, effective immediately. The release did not say whether he will keep any role at the company, and it did not discuss severance or his equity.

Kress, Nvidia’s executive vice president and CFO, will hold both jobs until a successor is named. The board also appointed Harvey C. Jones as its first-ever Chair. Nvidia describes Jones as an entrepreneur, technology executive and venture investor with more than 30 years of experience, who previously served as CEO and executive chairman of chip design software maker Synopsys.

Jones said the board has “full confidence in Colette and the leadership team,” according to the release. He said he expects operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap to continue without interruption. Kress said in the same release that the company’s focus “remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders.” The board thanked Huang for his contributions to the company and the industry.

How it got here

The resignation followed a fast-moving week. On Sunday, November 8, Nvidia’s board said it was launching an independent investigation after news reports that Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. A committee of independent directors, advised by outside counsel, is overseeing the review. In that statement, the board said it had no reason to believe that national security or Nvidia’s company secrets had been compromised, and that Huang supported the review and would cooperate.

The same day, Nvidia published a message from Huang to employees. In it, he apologized to his family and to Nvidia’s employees, board, partners and shareholders for his personal conduct, said he took full responsibility, and asked for privacy for his family.

On November 10, the independent members of the board said in a follow-up statement that they had retained Joon H. Kim, a former acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct the investigation. Nvidia has not said when the review will finish or whether its findings will be made public.

Why it matters

Huang has run Nvidia since its founding in 1993 and became the public face of the AI hardware boom. Nvidia’s GPUs are used to train and run many of today’s large AI models, and major AI developers depend on its chips. Our report on Anthropic exploring a custom AI chip with Samsung shows how much the industry is weighing alternatives to that dependence.

For gamers and PC buyers, Nvidia’s statement points to continuity. The board said the product roadmap should continue without interruption, which covers GeForce graphics cards and drivers as well as data center chips. If you use Nvidia’s software day to day, nothing changes yet. Our guide to fixing Nvidia ShadowPlay not recording games still applies, as do the AI tools covered in our list of AI tools for content creators.

What happens next

The next big moment is Nvidia’s third-quarter fiscal 2027 earnings report, which the company confirmed for Tuesday, November 17, at about 1:20 p.m. PT, with a conference call at 2 p.m. PT. It will be Kress’s first earnings call as interim CEO. Investors are likely to listen for any update on the CEO search and the investigation, along with demand for Nvidia’s AI chips.

Nvidia has not given a timeline for naming a permanent CEO. The board said it will consider both internal and external candidates.

FAQs

Who is Nvidia’s CEO now?

Colette Kress, Nvidia’s executive vice president and CFO, is interim CEO. She will also continue as CFO until the board names a permanent successor.

Why did Jensen Huang resign?

Nvidia’s announcement did not give a reason. The resignation came four days after the board opened an independent investigation into reports that Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort, and after Huang apologized publicly for his personal conduct.

Is Nvidia still reporting earnings on November 17?

Yes. Nvidia said it will report third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Tuesday, November 17, as previously scheduled, with a conference call at 2 p.m. PT.

Who is leading the Nvidia investigation?

A committee of independent directors is overseeing it. They retained former acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct the review.

Featured image: Mariia Berezovsky on Unsplash.

Disclosure: TheTechHacker has no paid relationship with Nvidia or any company mentioned here.