Nvidia named Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress interim CEO on November 12 after co-founder Jensen Huang resigned with immediate effect. Huang also stepped down as president and left the board, ending 33 years at the helm of the chipmaker he helped build.
Kress will remain chief financial officer and executive vice president while running the company. Nvidia’s board has begun searching for a permanent CEO and said it would consider candidates from inside and outside the company. It also named Harvey C. Jones, a former chief executive of chip design software company Synopsys, as Nvidia’s first board chair.
Kress Takes Over Ahead of Quarterly Earnings
Kress joined Nvidia as CFO in September 2013 after nearly 25 years in finance roles at technology companies, including Microsoft and Cisco. She led Nvidia’s finance operations as the company grew from a business best known for graphics chips into a major supplier of processors for artificial intelligence.
Jones said the board expects Nvidia to continue operating as usual, honor its commitments to customers and stay on schedule with planned products. Kress said she would continue the company’s work in AI and accelerated computing, which uses specialized chips to handle tasks such as training AI models.
Her first scheduled earnings call as interim CEO comes on November 17, when Nvidia plans to release its third-quarter results for fiscal 2027. The company kept its original reporting date. The call will give investors an early opportunity to hear how Kress plans to run the business while the board looks for Huang’s successor.
Huang’s Exit Ends 33 Years of Founder Leadership
Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and led it as its graphics processors found uses well beyond gaming. Today, cloud providers and AI developers use Nvidia chips in data centers to train and run AI systems. That shift made the company a central supplier to businesses building AI infrastructure.
Huang leaves the board but remains a major shareholder, with a stake of about 3.6 percent. Nvidia shares fell more than 10 percent in premarket trading following the announcement. Analysts pointed to uncertainty about who would succeed Huang and how the change might affect Nvidia’s relationships with customers and suppliers.
The company’s leadership now rests with two longtime technology executives in distinct roles. Kress will oversee day-to-day operations while retaining responsibility for Nvidia’s finances. Jones will chair the board as it conducts the search for a permanent CEO. Nvidia gave no timetable for naming Huang’s successor, leaving the November 17 earnings call as the next scheduled update from the company.
