Jensen Huang Steps Down at Nvidia as the Spy Scandal Ends a 33-Year Run; CFO Colette Kress Takes the Helm

The most important executive in the artificial intelligence boom is out. Jensen Huang, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and led it for 33 years, stepped down Thursday as president, chief executive and a member of the board, effective immediately, the company announced ^[3][2].

Chief financial officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while keeping her finance role, and the board will consider both internal and external candidates for the permanent job, with no timeline given, Euronews and Gizmodo reported ^[3][4]. Harvey C. Jones, a former Synopsys chief executive and longtime Nvidia director, was named the company's first-ever board chair, Reuters reported ^[1].

Reuters said the departure leaves "the AI industry without its biggest champion" ^[1].

How It Came to This

The end came quickly. Nvidia's board met Wednesday night to consider removing Huang, Reuters reported ^[1]. The company's announcement thanked him and said operations would continue without interruption, but it did not address the scandals, according to Gizmodo ^[4].

The crisis began with reports that Huang had an affair with Alice Huang, a former executive of Singapore-based Megaspeed, an official Nvidia cloud partner, whom U.S. authorities concluded was a Chinese intelligence asset, Reuters reported ^[1]. The two are not related ^[1].

On Sunday, Huang apologized to employees in a memo. "I was unfaithful to my wife," he wrote, adding that his actions had hurt her and their children and that there was no excuse for them, Yahoo Finance reported ^[6]. The same day, the board announced an independent investigation overseen by a committee of independent directors with outside counsel, and said it had "no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised" ^[5]. At the time, the board also expressed confidence in Huang ^[5].

That confidence did not survive the week. On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Huang also had a relationship with a subordinate at the company, Reuters and Gizmodo reported ^[1][4]. Gizmodo noted that at least three Republicans had called for Huang's ouster ^[4].

The Market Reaction

Investors have been bracing for this for days. Nvidia shares fell more than 10% in premarket trading Thursday after the announcement, Reuters reported ^[1]. Yahoo Finance reported that the stock lost more than $600 billion in market value over the past week, and about $2 trillion from its record close on Oct. 6 ^[6]. Bernstein downgraded the stock to market-perform and cut its price target to $200 from $400, and Oppenheimer also downgraded it ^[6].

Related Nvidia's Leadership Crisis Drags Tech Futures Lower as Wall Street Braces for a Volatile Thursday

Huang remains a major shareholder, with a stake of about 3.61% that makes him the company's fourth-largest investor, Reuters reported ^[1]. Whether he will keep any advisory role was not reported.

Who Is Colette Kress

Kress has been Nvidia's executive vice president and chief financial officer since September 2013, Gizmodo noted ^[4]. She has overseen the company's finances through its rise to the center of the AI economy, and she now inherits a company facing a board investigation, scrutiny from Washington and a shaken investor base ^[4][1].

What Comes Next

The calendar is crowded. Nvidia reports quarterly results on Nov. 17, Yahoo Finance noted, and Kress will face analysts days after taking over ^[6]. The company's chips are also at the center of U.S.-China trade talks heading into President Trump's expected meeting with Xi Jinping next week, and Reuters reported that Huang's exit could affect U.S. chip export policy ^[1].

The Bottom Line

Nvidia is an American success story, and Huang's part in building it is not erased by the way his tenure ended. That makes this ending all the more sobering.

Character matters, in the boardroom as much as anywhere else. When a leader's private conduct opens a door to a foreign intelligence service, it stops being private. Nvidia's board stood by Huang on Sunday and reversed course by Wednesday night, and shareholders paid for the uncertainty in between ^[5][1]. The company's engineers, its customers and the country's lead in artificial intelligence now depend on a clean, transparent investigation and a steady hand at the top.