Jensen Huang has resigned as Nvidia’s president and chief executive, and has left its board, effective immediately, the company said on Thursday, November 12, 2026. Chief financial officer Colette Kress is now interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent replacement. Nvidia’s announcement gives no reason for the departure, which ends Huang’s 33 years at the head of the company he co-founded. It came four days after he told staff he had had an affair, as we reported in our earlier story on the board investigation.
What Nvidia announced
In a press release and a matching filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Nvidia’s board said Huang had resigned “as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board, effective immediately.” Kress, the company’s executive vice president and CFO, will keep both of those jobs while serving as interim CEO “until a permanent successor has been named.”
The board also named Harvey C. Jones, a former chief executive and executive chairman of chip-design software company Synopsys, as its first-ever chair. TechCrunch notes that Jones has sat on Nvidia’s board since 1993. “The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team,” Jones said, adding that the company expects “operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption.”
Kress said she is “committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years.” The release does not quote Huang, and CNBC’s live coverage records no public statement from him since he resigned.
Who is Colette Kress?
Kress joined Nvidia in September 2013 and has been its executive vice president and chief financial officer since then. Before Nvidia she held finance roles at Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments, according to CNBC. She has presented Nvidia’s quarterly results on earnings calls alongside Huang, and Fortune named her one of its most powerful women in business in May.
Analysts quoted by CNBC expect her to hold the job for a while rather than permanently. Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives & Co. said she will likely be interim CEO for about a year, and that the long-term pick will probably come from outside the company.
Why did Jensen Huang resign?
Nvidia has not said. The resignation follows a run of reports about Huang’s personal conduct, all of them carried by news organizations rather than confirmed by Nvidia or by any court or government body:
- October 29: The New York Times reported that a Chinese national sought close ties with Huang to learn about Nvidia’s technology. CNBC, citing the Times and the Financial Times, says U.S. intelligence agencies believe she passed information to Beijing. China’s Foreign Ministry has called that account unsubstantiated.
- November 8: Huang emailed employees that he had “fallen short” and “was unfaithful to my wife,” CNBC reported. The board then opened an independent investigation and hired former acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to run it.
- November 11: The New York Times reported a separate affair with a senior Nvidia executive, CNBC says.
- Since then: Reuters reported that Huang had an intimate relationship with a second Nvidia employee, whom it did not name. Some coverage describes this as a third affair. Nvidia did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Huang has not publicly commented on the later reports. His November 8 email did not give details.
Congress wants to hear from Huang
Three House committees asked Huang to appear in a November 4 letter. On Thursday, Representative Brian Mast, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Huang “has agreed to come” and that the two sides were negotiating a date, CNBC reports. Mast said the session would likely be under oath and transcribed, and it is not yet clear whether it will be public. Separately, Senator Tim Scott, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, has asked Huang to appear on December 3; that is a request, not a confirmed hearing.
What happened to Nvidia stock
Nvidia shares fell more than 13% at Thursday’s open and touched a new 52-week low, before paring some of those losses later in the day, according to CNBC. TechCrunch reports that from the previous Friday the stock had fallen as much as 19% at its low point, erasing more than $855 billion in market value. Shares of AI cloud companies that rely on Nvidia chips, such as CoreWeave and Nebius, also fell.
The next test comes quickly. Nvidia says it will report third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Tuesday, November 17, at about 1:20 p.m. Pacific time, as previously scheduled, with its earnings call at 2 p.m. Pacific. It will be the first call in the company’s history without Huang as CEO. Nothing here is investment advice.
Who could be Nvidia’s next CEO?
The board says it “will consider internal and external candidates” and has given no timeline. Analysts who spoke to CNBC named several internal executives, including Kress, Ian Buck, Bryan Catanzaro, chief technology officer Michael Kagan and chief scientist Bill Dally. Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies called Buck the most logical permanent choice. President Donald Trump suggested Apple CEO Tim Cook on Truth Social, CNBC reports.
Quick answers
- Did Jensen Huang resign? Yes. Nvidia announced on November 12, 2026 that he resigned as president, CEO and board member, effective immediately. The board accepted his resignation on November 11, TechCrunch reports.
- Who is Nvidia’s CEO now? Colette Kress, as interim CEO. She remains CFO.
- Who founded Nvidia? Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, in 1993.
- How old is Jensen Huang? He was born on February 17, 1963, so he is 63.
- When does Nvidia report earnings? Tuesday, November 17, 2026, after the U.S. market close.
This is a developing story. The facts above reflect reporting as of Friday, November 13, 2026.
Sources
- Nvidia: NVIDIA Announces CEO Transition (November 12, 2026)
- Nvidia Form 8-K filing, SEC
- TechCrunch: Nvidia’s Jensen Huang resigns, chipmaker names CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO
- CNBC: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns, live updates
- CNBC: Who is Colette Kress?
Image: Jensen Huang at Stanford University, April 30, 2026. Photo by Anderseidesvik, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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