Huang’s Resignation Puts Chris in Charge of NVIDIA Temporarily Ahead of November 17 Results
Key Facts
NVIDIA’s board accepted Jensen Huang’s resignation as president and chief executive officer and as a board member on November 11, 2026, effective immediately, according to the company’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The board appointed CFO Colette Kress as interim chief executive while it searches for a new CEO. Kress will continue her financial duties at the same time, putting the company’s day-to-day management and finances in one person’s hands during the transition. Board Chair Harvey Jones said the company expects its operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption. The leadership change comes ahead of the fiscal 2027 third-quarter earnings call scheduled for November 17, making the results presentation Kress’s first public test in her interim role.
Kress has served as executive vice president and CFO since 2013 and will continue in both roles while also leading the company temporarily, according to the filing. Kress said the focus would remain on serving customers, partners, developers and shareholders. She added that the company would continue working on accelerated computing and artificial intelligence, two areas her statement listed as priorities for this period. The filing did not specify how long she would hold the interim post, while Reuters said her permanent appointment as chief executive remained undecided. A Reuters report said names floated in succession speculation included NVIDIA executive Ian Buck, AMD Chief Executive Lisa Su and Arm Chief Executive Rene Haas; the report cited them as speculative possibilities, not announced appointments.
Jones was appointed chairman of the board on November 11 and has been a member since 1993, according to the company’s filing. He has also served since 2004 as managing partner at Square Wave Ventures, a private family office. His appointment puts the board under the leadership of a member with long experience there, as Kress takes over as interim chief executive. Jones said the board expects the company’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption. That message comes as markets track the company’s ability to maintain its business trajectory after its founder’s departure from executive management.
The leadership change was surrounded by sharp swings in the stock during the preceding sessions. NVIDIA shares closed at $173.73 on November 11, then ended the November 12 session at $166.19, according to EL7 daily data. Reuters reported that the shares fell 14% to their lowest level in about 16 months during Thursday, November 12 trading, before paring losses to close down 4.3%. In Friday morning trading on November 13, the Associated Press said the shares fell 4.2%, alongside declines of 6.5% for Broadcom and 10.2% for AMD. Reliable data on NVIDIA’s closing price or percentage change at Friday’s close are not available among the verified facts here.
Pressure on technology stocks tied to artificial intelligence coincided with investor questions about whether the technology can generate profits to justify costly investments and high valuations, according to an Associated Press report. The report said some investors’ expectations that NVIDIA customers would diversify their suppliers were reflected in gains for competitors such as Broadcom, Intel and AMD after Huang’s departure. It quoted finance professor Chester Spatt as predicting that buyers would become more reluctant to concentrate their purchases with a single source. An eMarketer analyst said NVIDIA would have to prove it can maintain its AI dominance without the leader who contributed substantially to building it, adding that his departure raises uncertainty beyond the company. This context puts the company’s upcoming results under investor scrutiny from two angles: business performance and its ability to keep executing its plans under new leadership.
NVIDIA is scheduled to hold its fiscal 2027 third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, November 17, at 2 p.m. Pacific time, or 5 p.m. Eastern time, according to the company’s investor relations department. The quarter ended on October 25, 2026, meaning the call will cover a financial period that preceded the leadership transition announced on November 11. The company reported revenue of $96.2 billion for the second quarter on August 26, up 18% from the previous quarter and 106% from the same period a year earlier. In its third-quarter outlook, it set revenue at $108 billion, plus or minus 2%, and said it assumed no data-center computing revenue from China. Those published figures and guidance will serve as a benchmark for comparing the expected results, while the call is the first near-term official opportunity to present performance updates under the interim leadership.