Jensen Huang’s Bad Week Ends With Nvidia Resignation
Nvidia founder Jensen Huang resigned as CEO on November 12 after reports of multiple affairs. The crisis has wiped about $1 trillion off the company's market value, drawn FBI and congressional scrutiny, and left employees split. CFO Colette Kress takes over as interim chief executive.
Nvidia founder Jensen Huang, 63, resigned as chief executive on Thursday, November 12, 2026, capping Jensen Huang’s bad week of affair reports that has cost the chipmaker about $1 trillion in market value. Nvidia shares fell sharply on the news.
Huang had led the company since it was founded in 1993. The board named chief financial officer Colette Kress interim CEO and appointed Harvey Jones, a former Synopsys chief executive, as board chair. Kress will keep her finance job too.
How the week unfolded
On Sunday, Huang wrote to employees that he had been “unfaithful to [his] wife” and that there was “no excuse.” That email followed reports of an affair with a suspected Chinese intelligence asset.
The board announced his exit on Thursday morning, after reports of an alleged second affair, with a direct report. Reuters later reported an alleged relationship with yet another Nvidia employee. Huang has not commented on those reports since his Sunday email.
The turmoil has prompted investigations by US lawmakers and the FBI, and raised the prospect of new export controls on chips.
What analysts said
Patrick Moorhead, founder of Moor Insights & Strategy, said he was “not surprised.” The relationship with a direct report, he said, changed the odds that the board would keep Huang.
Nasdaq futures also fell Thursday. Liz Thomas, chief market strategist at SoFi, said the question for investors is whether the market “can survive without positive results from Nvidia.” She said it probably can in the short term.
The timing is awkward. Thomas noted that Nvidia’s next earnings call is three days away. A smooth leadership handover would help, she said, but she expects an overhang on the stock in the meantime.
Staff push back
Inside Nvidia, some employees want Huang back. A suggestion-box post written before his resignation urged the board to weigh staff sentiment, and it has drawn more than 1,600 comments.
One companywide email demanded transparency about his exit. About two dozen employees posted support for Huang on LinkedIn after the announcement.
Many staff had expected a board investigation to finish before any big change. Huang left just as the inquiry began. “Nvidia is Nvidia because of Jensen,” one employee who was not authorized to speak publicly said.
