Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO and shares fall 12% premarket, with CFO Colette Kress named interim chief
Jensen Huang resigned as CEO of Nvidia (NVDA) on Thursday, and Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will lead the company as interim CEO.
Huang also left the board, effective immediately. The board accepted his resignation on Wednesday and announced it on Thursday morning. Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and had run it ever since.
Kress has been CFO since 2013 and will keep that job while the board looks for a permanent CEO. It will consider candidates from inside and outside the company.
The board also named its first-ever chair, Harvey Jones. He has been a director since 1993 and is a former CEO of Synopsys (SNPS). Jones said the board has "full confidence in Colette and the leadership team" and expects operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap "to continue without interruption."
Kress said she is committed to "building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years."
Nvidia's statement gives no reason for the resignation. Huang admitted on Sunday to an affair with Alice Huang, whom U.S. intelligence officials believe is a Chinese spy. On Wednesday, The New York Times reported a second relationship, with Nvidia health care vice president Kimberly Powell, who reports to him.
Nvidia shares were down 12.2% in premarket trading, as of 9:16 a.m. ET. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM), which makes Nvidia's chips, was down 5.0%.
The selling weighed on the wider market. Nasdaq 100 futures were down 1.2% and S&P 500 futures 0.6%.
Wall Street had already turned cautious before the announcement. CNBC counts six analyst downgrades between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Dan Ives put Nvidia's value at "$300 per share with Jensen as CEO and $225 per share without Jensen as CEO."
Kress takes over five days before Nvidia's third-quarter results. The company reports on Tuesday, November 17, after the close, as planned.
Sources & Further Reading
- "NVIDIA Announces CEO Transition." NVIDIA. November 12, 2026.
- "NVIDIA Corporation Current Report (Form 8-K)." NVIDIA. November 12, 2026.
- "Nvidia stock falls 10% as CEO Jensen Huang announces resignation." CNBC. November 12, 2026.
- "‘A dark day for Nvidia’: Here’s what analysts are saying as markets brace for news on Huang's fate." CNBC. November 12, 2026.
This article was drafted with the help of AI. Kris Gunnars fact-checked, edited and published the article and is responsible for its accuracy and quality. How we use AI
