NVIDIA has appointed Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim chief executive officer following the resignation of co-founder Jensen Huang as president, CEO and member of the company's board, effective Nov. 12, 2026.
Kress will retain her position as executive vice president and CFO while assuming the interim role. The board said it would begin searching for a permanent successor, considering both internal and external candidates.
The board also appointed Harvey C. Jones as its first chairman. Jones has served on NVIDIA's board since the company was founded in 1993 and previously led semiconductor design software company Synopsys as CEO and executive chairman.
Kress joined NVIDIA in September 2013 and has overseen its financial operations during its expansion into accelerated computing and artificial intelligence (AI). Before joining the company, she held finance positions at Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments.
Jones cited Kress' knowledge of NVIDIA's business, customers, operations and financial position in expressing the board's confidence in her leadership.
“She is supported by an experienced leadership team that has been instrumental in executing NVIDIA’s strategy and advancing its technology roadmap,” Jones said.
Kress said she would build on the foundation established by Huang during his 33 years at the company.
“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,” she said.
Huang's departure comes amid reports of controversies involving his personal relationships and national security concerns. Reuters and The Associated Press reported allegations involving Alice Huang, a former executive of Singapore-based cloud computing company Megaspeed International, whom US authorities reportedly suspect of having links to Chinese intelligence. Reports also alleged a separate relationship between Huang and an NVIDIA executive who reported directly to him.
The Associated Press said it could not independently confirm the reported relationships. The allegations have not been established as findings of wrongdoing.
Megaspeed, an NVIDIA cloud partner, has also faced allegations of helping transfer restricted NVIDIA processors to China, which the company has denied. Singapore has reportedly been investigating the allegations. NVIDIA previously said it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets had been compromised.
Huang co-founded NVIDIA in 1993 and led its transformation from a graphics processing unit manufacturer into a major supplier of computing platforms for AI, high-performance computing and data centers. Its products and CUDA software platform have become central to the infrastructure used by cloud providers, research institutions and enterprises.
Kress now faces the task of maintaining investor confidence, customer relationships and product development while the board conducts its succession search.
NVIDIA said its third-quarter fiscal 2027 results announcement would proceed as scheduled on Nov. 17, with results due at about 1:20 p.m. Pacific time and an earnings call at 2 p.m.