Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO, and CFO Colette Kress takes over for now

Nvidia said on Nov. 12, 2026, that Jensen Huang has resigned as president, CEO and board member, effective immediately, with CFO Colette Kress serving as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor.

For 33 years Nvidia and Jensen Huang were basically the same sentence, and the company that sells the picks and shovels of the AI boom now has a CFO keeping the seat warm. The board's message is continuity, same roadmap, same customers, same earnings date next Tuesday, which is exactly what you say when the market is wondering whether anyone else knows the roadmap. The real test is that Nov. 17 call, the first time in the company's public life that someone other than Huang explains the numbers as CEO.

Nvidia's board, on Nov. 11, 2026, accepted Jensen Huang's resignation as president, chief executive, and member of the board, effective immediately. The company announced it on Thursday, Nov. 12. Huang co-founded Nvidia 33 years ago. He is not quoted in the release. Those lines are in Nvidia's newsroom announcement and in the Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission the same day. A Form 8-K is the notice a public company files when something important changes.

Colette Kress, 59, is interim chief executive. She stays chief financial officer until a permanent successor is named. She has been executive vice president and chief financial officer since September 2013. For nearly 25 years before that, she held finance roles at companies including Cisco and Microsoft. The board will look at candidates from inside the company and from outside. Those details are Nvidia's.

Harvey C. Jones, 73, was appointed Nvidia's first board chair. The company had not had one. Jones has been a director since 1993. He is a former chief executive and executive chairman of Synopsys, the company that makes software for designing chips. Those lines are Nvidia's.

Jones said: "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." Kress said: "I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years." The quotations are theirs, in the Nov. 12 release.

The resignation follows a review the board opened days earlier. On Nov. 8, the board said it was starting an independent investigation after reporting that Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. Huang told employees he had been unfaithful to his wife, and he apologized. News reports attributed to U.S. officials a link between the woman and China's Ministry of State Security. That link is an allegation those outlets attributed to U.S. officials. China called the allegations unsubstantiated. On Nov. 11 the Wall Street Journal reported the board was preparing to remove him, and shares fell more than 8% in after-hours trading. After-hours is the trading that happens once the regular session has closed. That drop is Wednesday's, in the related story.

Huang owns about 3.5% of the shares, TechCrunch reported, and those shares do not carry extra votes. Supervoting shares would let a founder outvote the rest of the holders. Nvidia does not have them, which is why the board could remove him at any time. That ownership figure and that reading are TechCrunch's.

Nvidia still plans to report third-quarter results for fiscal 2027 on Tuesday, Nov. 17, around 1:20 p.m. Pacific time, with the call at 2 p.m. Pacific time. Fiscal 2027 is the company's accounting year, which does not match the calendar. That schedule is Nvidia's. The release does not name a permanent chief executive.

CNBC said analysts have named people already at Nvidia as possible successors, including Kress, Ian Buck, Bryan Catanzaro, Michael Kagan, and Bill Dally. Those names are analyst speculation, as CNBC reported them. They are not a board shortlist.

The picture is Colette Kress, Nvidia's chief financial officer and newly named interim chief executive, with long blonde hair and a black turtleneck, smiling in an official company portrait against a light gray background. The credit is NVIDIA.

In plain terms, the co-founder who ran Nvidia for 33 years resigned as president, chief executive, and director, effective immediately. Colette Kress, the finance chief, is interim chief executive and still chief financial officer. Harvey C. Jones is the company's first board chair. The earnings date is still Nov. 17. Huang did not speak in the release.