Nvidia names Colette Kress interim CEO after Jensen Huang resigns

In a seismic leadership transition for the global technology industry, Nvidia confirmed that co-founder Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive officer, and member of the board of directors, ending an extraordinary 33-year tenure at the helm of the semiconductor powerhouse he co-founded in 1993. The Santa Clara-based chipmaker announced that executive vice president and chief financial officer Colette Kress has been appointed interim CEO with immediate effect, while veteran director Harvey Jones has been named chair of the board. Kress, who has served as Nvidia's chief financial officer since 2013, brings over a decade of executive leadership steering the company’s capital structure through historic growth cycles, including the pivotal transition from specialized gaming graphics to global enterprise AI infrastructure dominance. During her tenure alongside Huang, Nvidia’s annual revenue expanded more than twentyfold, transforming the Silicon Valley firm into the world's most valuable semiconductor enterprise. Kress will retain her CFO responsibilities on an interim basis, supported by Nvidia's deep bench of corporate finance executives, while the board's newly formed succession committee conducts a comprehensive search for a permanent chief executive across internal and external candidates. To anchor governance during the transition, Nvidia's board appointed Harvey Jones as board chair. Jones, an accomplished venture capitalist, former Synopsys CEO, and Nvidia board member since 1993, emphasized the board’s unified focus on strategic execution. "Nvidia’s foundation has never been stronger, backed by an exceptional executive team, unrivaled technical talent, and clear architectural leadership," Jones noted in a formal corporate release. "Colette Kress commands immense operational respect and institutional trust across our organization, our Tier-1 customer base, and global financial markets." The departure of Huang—one of Silicon Valley’s longest-tenured and most iconic founders—comes at a monumental juncture for global technology infrastructure. Nvidia controls an estimated 85 percent of the world’s high-performance AI accelerator market, with hyperscalers including Microsoft , Amazon Web Services , and Google Cloud investing hundreds of billions of dollars into Nvidia-powered data center fabrics. Industry analysts emphasize that while Huang’s visionary product persona is irreplaceable, Nvidia’s structural competitive advantages—anchored by its proprietary CUDA software ecosystem, NVLink interconnect architectures, and deep co-design partnerships with TSMC—remain deeply entrenched across global supply chains. Corporate disclosures filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under Form 8-K confirmed Huang’s immediate resignation from all executive and fiduciary roles on November 11. While recent unverified media reports and industry commentary had speculated on mounting internal disagreements regarding geopolitical export restrictions and strategic capital allocation, Nvidia's regulatory filings did not cite any disagreement on financial practices, accounting disclosures, or corporate governance. Management moved swiftly to separate unsubstantiated market rumors from documented disclosures, stressing that day-to-day operations and technology development continue uninterrupted. Nvidia confirmed that it will report its third-quarter fiscal 2027 financial results as scheduled on November 17, followed by a formal investor conference call led by Kress and senior engineering leadership. In investor communications following the filing, executive leadership reiterated delivery milestones for its flagship Blackwell Ultra and next-generation Rubin GPU platforms, assuring enterprise customers and sovereign AI initiatives that production schedules, hyperscale order books, and software ecosystem support remain fully on track.