Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | jk
On the evening of November 12, NVIDIA announced that co-founder Jensen Huang has resigned from his positions as president, CEO, and board member, effective immediately. The 63-year-old founder, who had led the company for 33 years, stepped down amid a scandal of infidelity that had been brewing for several days.
The company stated in the announcement that the board has accepted the resignation. According to an 8-K filing submitted by NVIDIA to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the resignation was accepted by the board on November 11. Jensen Huang has also exited the board and will no longer hold any board seat.
Jensen Huang co-founded NVIDIA in 1993, transforming a graphics chip company into a core supplier in the AI wave, with the company's market value once reaching about $4 trillion. He currently holds about 3.6% of NVIDIA’s shares, making him the fourth-largest shareholder of the company.
Personnel Arrangements: CFO Takes Over as Interim CEO
NVIDIA has appointed Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim CEO until the board selects a permanent successor. Kress will continue to serve as executive vice president and chief financial officer while exercising the powers of the CEO.
Colette Kress
On the board level, former Synopsys CEO Harvey C. Jones, who has been a director since 1993, has been appointed as the first chairman of the board. Prior to this, NVIDIA did not have an independent board chairman, with Jensen Huang serving both as CEO and holding a board seat.
The board will search for a permanent CEO both internally and externally. Jones stated in a statement that the board has full confidence in Kress and the management team, and it is expected that company operations, customer commitments, and product roadmap will remain unaffected. Kress also stated in the announcement that she will continue to advance the company’s work based on the foundation laid by Jensen Huang.
New CEO's Resume: 13 Years in Office, Worth $1 Billion
Colette Kress, born in 1967 in the United States, is approximately 59 years old and has been NVIDIA's long-time executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO). Assuming the role of interim CEO makes her the first female leader in NVIDIA's history.
Kress has a solid academic background. She graduated with a degree in finance from the University of Arizona and later earned an MBA from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. This education laid the groundwork for her nearly thirty years of financial and managerial career in the technology industry.
She started her career at Texas Instruments, where she worked for about eight years in various financial positions, accumulating practical experience in the semiconductor industry. In 1997, she joined Microsoft, serving for 13 years. During her time at Microsoft, she held senior positions in corporate planning and finance, and from 2006, she served as CFO of the Server and Tools Division. This division was responsible for the financial strategy, planning, and reporting of enterprise-level products such as Windows Server, SQL Server, and development tools. Kress was deeply involved in finance management and resource allocation for large software businesses during this period.
In 2010, Kress moved to Cisco as the senior vice president and CFO of the business technology and operations finance organization, overseeing financial strategy, planning, reporting, and business development across business units, engineering, and operations.
In September 2013, recruited personally by Jensen Huang, she joined NVIDIA as executive vice president and CFO. At that time, NVIDIA’s annual revenue was only about $4.13 billion (for the 2014 fiscal year), making it the smallest company in her career. She once stated that her two sons were familiar with NVIDIA because of gaming graphics cards, which somewhat influenced her decision to join. Jensen Huang painted a vision for the company's future as a supplier of artificial intelligence computing infrastructure in front of a whiteboard, a strategic orientation that later proved highly prescient.
During Kress’s 13-year tenure, NVIDIA completed a profound transformation from a gaming graphics card manufacturer to a global leader in AI and accelerated computing. The company's revenue surged from $4.13 billion in the 2014 fiscal year to $215.9 billion in the 2026 fiscal year, an increase of approximately 52 times; its market value once surpassed several trillion dollars, making it one of the most valuable technology companies globally. She and Jensen Huang have long appeared together on quarterly earnings conference calls, explaining performance, outlook, and capital allocation to investors in a calm, detailed, and data-driven manner, earning high trust on Wall Street. Analysts generally believe that she is not only the financial head but also possesses a vision and influence similar to that of a chief operating officer, making her one of the most respected executives within the company.
In her specific work, Kress led the digital transformation of NVIDIA’s financial system, promoting the automation and datafication of manual processes; participated in multiple strategic investments in other technology companies; and assisted clients in addressing data center space and other supporting needs, promoting NVIDIA's deep layout in the AI ecosystem. She has publicly stated her position on OpenAI-related investments and demonstrated prudent financial judgment in key decisions. For example, she suggested adjustments to large-scale customer financing arrangements to balance growth with investor expectations. In July 2025, she became a billionaire due to her holdings in NVIDIA stock, with a net worth of approximately $1 billion to $1.2 billion, making her one of the few technology executives to join the billionaire ranks from a CFO position.
In terms of honors, she received the Annual CFO Award from Silicon Valley Business Journal in 2016; has been repeatedly included in Forbes' list of the Most Powerful Women and Fortune's Most Powerful Women list (ranking 49th in 2026); received the Chief organization’s “The New Era in Business” award in 2024 and was included in MarketWatch 50 as a key figure in the AI field. These recognitions reflect her central role in promoting NVIDIA's financial health and strategic expansion.
Market Reaction
NVIDIA's stock price significantly dropped following the announcement of the resignation. After the Wall Street Journal reported that the board was preparing to force Jensen Huang to step down, NVIDIA's after-hours trading had already declined by more than 9%; tonight, with the US stock market opening, NVIDIA's stock price continued to decline, briefly dropping below $150, hitting a new low since June 15 of this year, though the decline has narrowed, currently reported at $160.
Dan Ives, a partner and senior managing director at Yorkville Ives, stated in an investor report on Sunday that the investigation represents a blemish for Jensen Huang, which could trigger multiple congressional investigations, and that there is a risk of him being removed, which could exert pressure on the stock price.
NVIDIA stated that the board has full confidence in Kress and the management team, expecting that company operations, customer commitments, and product roadmap will not be disrupted.
Exposure of Infidelity, Departing in Disgrace
Jensen Huang's departure is due to two reports of extramarital affairs.
On November 8 (Sunday), Jensen Huang sent an email to employees, admitting to his infidelity with his wife and apologizing to employees, the board, and shareholders. That same day, NVIDIA's board announced that a committee composed of independent directors, with the assistance of external independent lawyers, would conduct an investigation. The board stated that there was no reason to believe that company secrets had been leaked.
On November 11 (Wednesday), The New York Times reported that Jensen Huang was in a romantic relationship with NVIDIA’s Vice President of Healthcare Kimberly Powell; both are married, and Powell reports to Huang. The report stated that the two were photographed in an intimate act at a hotel in San Jose, California, in March of this year.
The Wall Street Journal subsequently reported that the board was preparing to force Jensen Huang to resign. CBS quoted sources stating that the Trump administration was aware of the matter. CNBC confirmed that the board held a meeting that evening to discuss whether to remove Jensen Huang, which lasted into the night. The next day, NVIDIA announced Jensen Huang's resignation.
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