Nvidia shares fall 10% premarket after Huang resigns as leadership transition begins
Key Facts
Nvidia accepted Jensen Huang’s resignation as chief executive, chairman and a member of the board, effective immediately, the company said Thursday. The announcement came as its shares fell 10% in premarket trading, according to The Associated Press. Losses had narrowed to about 5% by midday after a sharper decline earlier in the session. Huang’s resignation ends his leadership of the company he co-founded and opens a transition at one of the world’s largest companies. Nvidia said its board has confidence in Colette Kress and the leadership team and expects operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap to continue without interruption.
The company said the search for a permanent chief executive would include candidates from inside and outside Nvidia, according to Reuters. That means the transition will take place as the company searches for permanent leadership, while the board maintains its commitment to business continuity and product plans. Nvidia said its operations and customer commitments would continue without interruption. The change affects a company Huang has led since its founding, not only his executive post. Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem and led it until his resignation, The Associated Press reported.
The resignation announcement coincided with an internal investigation Nvidia had disclosed on Sunday, but the company provided no material new update on it, according to The Associated Press. The company said it had no reason to believe national security or its secrets had been compromised. It added that its review would examine all available information. The investigation puts security among the issues accompanying the leadership transition, alongside the search for a permanent chief executive. Reports described two extramarital relationships, while Nvidia said its review was examining whether Huang was the target of a foreign intelligence operation, The Associated Press reported.
The share move followed a long rally and a retreat from the record level reached the previous month. Nvidia shares had fallen 27% from that level through Wednesday, November 11, amid investor concerns about Huang’s continued tenure and how the company would manage a future without him, according to The Associated Press. In the four years through the previous month, the shares had risen 1,722%, compared with gains of nearly 109% for the S&P 500 over the same period. AMD and Broadcom shares each rose about 6% on Thursday as Nvidia fell, Reuters reported. The moves reflected diverging performance among chip stocks in the session following the announcement, while Nvidia remained the focus of the market reaction.
Kress enters the transition after a long career in financial management. She joined Nvidia in September 2013 as executive vice president and chief financial officer and has held the role since then, according to Reuters. Before that, she held finance roles at Texas Instruments, then Microsoft between 1997 and 2010, and moved to Cisco in 2010. Kress holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Arizona and an MBA from Southern Methodist University, according to the report, which was based on the company’s annual report. Nvidia had revenue of $4.13 billion in fiscal 2013, the year Kress joined, and $215.9 billion in fiscal 2026. Her career provides context for her financial management experience during a period in which the company’s business expanded, while Nvidia has yet to announce a permanent successor.
The timing of a decision on permanent leadership remains tied to the search, which Nvidia said would include internal and external candidates. The company has provided no material update on its internal review since announcing it on Sunday, according to The Associated Press. The board, meanwhile, said it expects the company’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption. Investors are now focused on the execution of the leadership transition and the outcome of the review, while the company says it has no reason to believe national security or its secrets were harmed. These issues remain at the forefront until the company announces further developments.