Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns: CFO Colette Kress is interim CEO as the search begins

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has resigned. Nvidia's board announced on 12 November that Huang, who co-founded the company in 1993 and is the only chief executive it has ever had, left his roles as president, CEO and board member "effective immediately". CFO Colette Kress is interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor. This story was first published on 12 November, while the board was still deciding; the update below has the outcome, and the background follows.

Our short version:

Image: Peter Dasilva (CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Update: Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO

Updated 13 November 2026, 11:15 AM IST.

Nvidia's press release, also filed with the SEC, sets out three changes:

• Jensen Huang resigned as president, CEO and a member of the board, effective immediately.
• Colette Kress, executive vice president and CFO since September 2013, is interim CEO and keeps the CFO job until a permanent CEO is named. The board will consider internal and external candidates.
• Harvey C. Jones, a former CEO and executive chairman of Synopsys, is the board's first-ever chair.

Jones said the board expects "operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption". The release thanks Huang for his "immeasurable contributions" but gives no reason for his departure, and Huang had not commented publicly when we updated this story. CNN reports that he has been summoned to testify before Congress.

Nvidia says it will still report third-quarter results on Tuesday, 17 November, as scheduled. That call will be the first time investors hear from the company's new leadership.

The background below was written on 12 November, before the decision.

What happened to the Nvidia CEO this week?

The crisis moved fast, over four days:

• Sunday, 8 November. Nvidia's board said it was opening an independent investigation after learning that Huang "has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort". It said it had no reason to believe national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, and that it "has confidence in Jensen and his leadership team". The same day, Huang told staff in an internal message, quoted by CNBC: "I was unfaithful to my wife."
• Tuesday, 10 November. The independent directors hired Joon H. Kim, a former acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and his firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to run the inquiry.
• Wednesday, 11 November. The New York Times reported a second relationship, with a senior Nvidia executive. Minutes later, the WSJ reported the board was preparing to remove Huang. CBS News cited two sources saying the same.

The foreign-intelligence angle concerns a businesswoman who previously led Megaspeed, a Singapore company that bought Nvidia chips. US intelligence believes she was recruited by China's Ministry of State Security, according to the New York Times as cited by CBS. China's foreign ministry called the "so-called Chinese spy narrative" baseless. Nobody named in the reporting has been charged, and Huang is not accused of a crime. Two law-enforcement sources told CBS the Justice Department is investigating Megaspeed over possible export-control violations, which Megaspeed denies.

Can Nvidia's board fire Jensen Huang?

Yes. Under Nvidia's bylaws, a majority of directors can remove the CEO "with or without cause", Reuters reported via France 24. Nvidia has 11 directors, and all but Huang are independent. Being the founder gives him no veto in that vote.

That makes this a test of the board rather than of the founder. On Sunday it publicly backed Huang. By Wednesday, according to the reports, it was preparing to act against him. That shift is what investors reacted to.

NextDiff graphic. Sources: Nvidia, CNBC, Reuters via France 24, Fortune, CBS News

Who could replace Jensen Huang?

Nvidia has not set out a clear succession plan, Fortune noted. The names in the coverage so far:

• Colette Kress, Nvidia's chief financial officer. Some directors favour her as interim CEO, Semafor reported, citing the WSJ, and business and law experts quoted by Fortune said the same. Armina Rosenberg of Minotaur Capital called her "the natural choice" for an interim role, according to France 24.
• Stephen Neal, the board's lead independent director, was another interim option Fortune described.
• An outside search. The board is working with an outside firm to identify replacements, Bloomberg reported, as cited by France 24.

On prediction markets, bettors favoured Ian Buck, a long-serving Nvidia vice president, France 24 reported. That reflects bets, not reporting from inside the company. Wharton's Michael Useem told Fortune that a board doing its job "would already have a slate of possible successors".

Image: Coolcaesar (CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

How much has Nvidia stock fallen?

Nvidia shares fell more than 9% in post-market trading after the WSJ report, CNBC said. CBS and Reuters put the drop at more than 8% at the time they checked. The stock was already down 7% this week before that, according to CNBC. If those losses hold, Nvidia will have lost about $600 billion in market value since the board announced its investigation, Reuters calculated, for what was a roughly $4 trillion company.

The damage spread in extended trading: CoreWeave, which rents out Nvidia GPUs, fell about 6%, while rivals AMD and Broadcom rose 4% and 3%, France 24 reported. Bernstein cut its rating on Nvidia, writing that it "feels impossible" for the board to keep Huang, Yahoo Finance's live coverage reported.

Why it matters beyond Nvidia

Huang is more than a figurehead. He presents the chip roadmap at Nvidia's keynotes and has been the company's main public voice in Washington and Beijing on export rules. Nvidia supplies most of the accelerators that AI labs and cloud companies are building on, so customers will want to know who now makes those calls.

The China thread also lands on an industry already under scrutiny. Last week a New York Times investigation found US-licensed buyers of Nvidia's H200 chips with empty offices. A US investigation into a Singapore chip buyer adds to that pressure, whatever happens to Huang.

What happens next?

• The CEO search. The board is looking at internal and external candidates; Kress runs the company in the meantime.
• Earnings on 17 November. Nvidia's third-quarter results and call go ahead as scheduled, with Kress as interim CEO.
• The investigation. Wachtell Lipton's inquiry into the foreign-intelligence effort was not mentioned in the resignation release.

We will keep updating this story as Nvidia names a permanent CEO.