Colette Kress Named Nvidia Interim CEO as Jensen Huang Resigns; Shares Fall 14%
Nvidia finance chief Colette Kress became interim CEO on Thursday after co-founder Jensen Huang resigned over reports of extramarital affairs. Shares fell 14%, and the board is weighing internal and external candidates to lead the world's most valuable chipmaker permanently.
Colette Kress, Nvidia's chief financial officer, became interim chief executive of the world's most valuable chipmaker on Thursday, November 12, 2026, after co-founder Jensen Huang resigned over reports of extramarital affairs. Nvidia shares plunged 14% the same day.
Nvidia has not announced a succession plan. It said its board is considering both internal and external candidates for the permanent job.
Huang co-founded the company in 1993 and pioneered the AI chip industry. He is the central figure in the multitrillion-dollar boom that is driving the U.S. economy.
Who Kress is
Kress joined Nvidia in September 2013 after finance roles at Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments. She has been the other main voice on earnings calls, reporting results and taking questions alongside Huang.
"NVIDIA's strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years," Kress said in Thursday's statement.
Dan Ives, an analyst at Yorkville Ives & Co., said before the news was official that Kress is "the only one internally that has this significant respect." He added: "She's more than just a CFO. I'd almost view her as more of a COO."
Ives also said Huang "didn't do anything without her." Daniel Newman, CEO of Futurum Group, wrote that Kress "deeply understands the business and has shown fierce loyalty to the company."
How the crisis unfolded
The saga became public on Sunday, when Huang apologized for being unfaithful to his wife. That followed reports of an affair with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman whom U.S. intelligence suspects was a spy.
Pressure grew late Wednesday after The New York Times reported a second affair, with an employee named Kimberly Powell.
The stock is poised for its sixth straight weekly drop, the longest slump since 2012. Broad concerns about the AI buildout, particularly after midterm elections that brought sweeping Democratic victories, had already weighed on the shares. Nvidia is scheduled to report quarterly results on Tuesday.
Who could take the job permanently
Ives expects Kress to serve for about a year as interim CEO, with the permanent replacement coming from outside the company. "You need someone that's been on the global stage," he said.
Josh Gilbert, an analyst at eToro, said Kress is a "familiar and trusted voice for the market at a time when it badly needs one." But he said Nvidia, known for its technology edge, might want an engineer in the role.
Analysts have floated Chris Malachowsky, who co-founded Nvidia with Huang, and Ian Buck, who oversees its high-performance computing business. Outside names raised include Apple chair and former chief executive Tim Cook and Rene Haas, chief executive of Arm Holdings.
Several major investment firms have downgraded their forecasts for the chipmaker, a rare shift given investors' long optimism. Jun Bei Liu of Ten Cap said the issue is now "corporate governance, national security concerns and maintaining confidence in the leadership."
