Jensen Huang Resigns as Nvidia CEO, CFO Takes Over
Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive and a director of Nvidia with immediate effect, and the board has named chief financial officer Colette Kress as interim chief executive.
Kress will keep the finance role while she runs the company, and Nvidia said the board has begun a search for a permanent successor that will consider candidates from inside and outside the company.
And the board filled a governance gap in the same announcement. Harvey C. Jones becomes the first chair in Nvidia's history, a technology executive and venture investor of more than 30 years who was chief executive and then executive chairman of Synopsys.
"Colette has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position," Jones said, adding that the board has full confidence in her and the leadership team and expects operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap to continue without interruption.
Kress has been chief financial officer since she joined in 2013, after close to 25 years in finance roles at technology companies including Cisco and Microsoft, and she inherits a company that Huang built over 33 years into the largest supplier of AI chips.
But the announcement gives no reason for the resignation and does not mention the board investigation into whether Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence effort, or the reports of two extramarital relationships that prompted it. A resignation effective immediately, with an interim rather than a permanent appointment, leaves those questions open rather than answered.
"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," Kress said. The board thanked Huang for what it called immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry.
The first test comes next week, when Nvidia reports quarterly results on the schedule it had already set, with an interim chief executive presenting numbers that investors will read as a verdict on whether the machine runs without its founder.
So the succession question is answered only in the short term, and the larger one remains, which is whether a company whose strategy, customers and investors were organised around one person can name a permanent leader before the market decides for it.
Jensen Huang resigned as president, chief executive and director with immediate effect
Colette Kress, the chief financial officer, becomes interim chief executive
Harvey C. Jones becomes the first chair of the Nvidia board
The board has begun a search covering internal and external candidates
Nvidia reports quarterly results next week as previously scheduled
Source: Nvidia
