Nvidia said on 12 November that Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive officer and a member of the board, effective immediately. The announcement came in a company press release titled NVIDIA Announces CEO Transition.
Colette Kress, executive vice president and chief financial officer, has agreed to serve as interim chief executive while continuing as chief financial officer. The board also appointed Harvey C. Jones as its first-ever chair.
What the company said
The release confirms the departure is immediate and that Kress takes over day-to-day leadership, but it does not give a reason for the resignation and does not address the reporting that preceded it. That silence is itself worth noting: a CEO transition at a company this size normally arrives with a rationale and a succession plan, not an interim appointment.
What reports say
The New York Times reported that Huang, a co-founder of the chipmaker, had been entangled with a woman identified by US intelligence as a Chinese spy, and that he had an affair with an executive who reports to him. Those are reported allegations, not findings, and Nvidia’s statement does not confirm or deny them. Treat them as reporting rather than established fact.
Market reaction
The Times reported that news of the departure drove Nvidia’s stock down and reverberated across global markets. That reaction is understandable: Huang has been the public face of the AI build-out for years, and the company sits at the centre of the supply chain that the current investment cycle depends on.
Why it matters
Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and spent three decades turning it from a graphics card vendor into the defining supplier of AI compute. An interim chief executive who is also the chief financial officer is an unusual structure for a company of this scale, and it leaves two open questions: who runs the company permanently, and how much of the strategy was personal to Huang.
What to watch
- Whether the board names a permanent chief executive, and on what timeline.
- Whether the reported intelligence connection draws regulatory or congressional attention.
- Whether customers, suppliers and investors treat this as a governance event or an operational one.
This is a developing story. Sources: the NVIDIA Newsroom press release of 12 November 2026, and live coverage from The New York Times.
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