Colette Kress named interim CEO of Nvidia after Jensen Huang's resignation

Nvidia’s co‑founder and long‑time chief executive Jensen Huang stepped down on Thursday after media reports linked him to extramarital affairs, including one with a woman alleged to be a Chinese spy, and chief financial officer Colette Kress was named interim chief executive. The sudden exit comes as the AI‑chip maker, now worth more than $1 trillion, confronts a leadership vacuum that could reshape its future.

Huang built Nvidia from a modest graphics‑card company in the early 1990s into the world’s leading supplier of processors for artificial‑intelligence workloads. The firm’s fortunes have surged on the back of a booming AI market, making the role of chief executive one of the most powerful in tech. With the company at the centre of a geopolitical tug‑of‑war over chip technology, investors and analysts say a clear, steady hand is essential to maintain confidence and keep the supply chain moving.

Kress, a veteran of more than three decades in the industry and former executive at Cisco and Microsoft, has been Nvidia’s executive vice‑president and CFO for several years. She has co‑hosted every earnings call with Huang and is familiar to investors, but some observers argue the permanent job may require a deeper engineering background. Potential internal rivals include Chris Malachowsky, a co‑founder who still sits on the board and shares seniority with Huang, and Ian Buck, head of high‑performance computing, who helped push Nvidia’s GPUs beyond gaming. Outside voices have floated names such as Apple’s Tim Cook, a suggestion amplified by former President Donald Trump, though most experts expect Nvidia to first look within before considering an external hire.

The board is expected to begin a formal search within weeks, weighing the need for continuity against the pressure to protect Nvidia’s technological edge and navigate escalating US‑China tensions. A swift decision could reassure markets and keep the company’s AI leadership intact; a prolonged hunt might invite speculation and give rivals a chance to chip away at Nvidia’s dominance. How the board resolves the succession will be a key indicator of the company’s strategy in a rapidly evolving chip landscape.