Huang’s Resignation Shakes Nvidia, Leaving Colette Kress to Lead the Company on an Interim Basis
Key Facts
Nvidia announced on November 12, 2026, that its board had accepted Jensen Huang’s resignation as chairman, chief executive and board member, effective immediately. Huang is thereby leaving the company’s leadership and board in a move Nvidia said would not disrupt its operations, customer commitments or product roadmap. The company named Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress interim CEO; she will also continue overseeing finance until a permanent successor is appointed. The board has begun searching for a permanent CEO, saying it will consider candidates from inside and outside the company. The transition comes as markets await Nvidia’s quarterly results, scheduled for November 17, the first near-term financial milestone under Kress’s interim leadership.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nvidia said its board accepted the resignation on November 11 and that the filing was signed the following day. The company said Kress had agreed to take the interim role while remaining executive vice president and chief financial officer. Kress has served as CFO since joining Nvidia in September 2013, making her one of the leaders with years of experience inside the company. Kress said she was committed to building on the foundation Huang had established over 33 years. The board appointed Harvey C. Jones as Nvidia’s first chairman, an institutional change accompanying the transition in executive leadership.
Jones has a long history on the company’s board: the filing said he has been a director since 1993 and has served as managing partner at Square Wave Ventures since 2004. Nvidia also stressed that operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap would continue without interruption, a message aimed at reassuring customers and investors that the company would keep executing its plans while it searches for a permanent CEO. The announcement did not set a date for choosing a successor, saying only that the board had begun the search. That leaves Kress in charge of executive responsibilities as the company continues to manage its business and stated commitments. The earnings announcement remains the first scheduled milestone after the leadership transition.
The announcement came amid extraordinary growth in Nvidia’s stock during the artificial intelligence-related computing boom. Reuters reported that the shares had risen sevenfold by early October, when the company’s market value at one point approached $6 trillion. Reuters said Huang was the company’s fourth-largest shareholder, with a 3.61% stake, and would also leave the board. In trading, the stock closed down 4.3% on Thursday, November 12, then recovered 1% in after-hours trading, according to Reuters. On Friday, November 13, the stock fell again, a day after the announcement, the Associated Press reported. EL7 data showed the stock closed that session at $162.85.
Nvidia’s decline on Friday came during a session in which the S&P 500 fell 0.4%, although the index ended the week up 2.5%, according to the Associated Press. The final session’s performance thus differed from the week’s result, which marked the index’s first weekly gain since early October. The available figures do not include verified data on Nvidia’s daily trading range or the share prices of other semiconductor companies on that date. For the company, the upcoming earnings event gives interim management an opportunity to present financial performance on a previously scheduled date. Nvidia said third-quarter fiscal 2027 results would be released on November 17 at about 1:20 p.m. Pacific time, followed by an earnings call at 2 p.m.
Attention is also turning to the implications of the leadership transition for exports of AI chips to China. Reuters said lawmakers from both parties had called for tighter restrictions on China’s access to advanced chips. The agency reported that the Senate had launched an investigation earlier in November into whether Huang was being targeted in a foreign intelligence operation, while Nvidia said its board saw no reason to believe U.S. national security or company secrets had been compromised. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott also invited Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify before the committee the following month. In a memo to employees, Kress described the period as extremely challenging, and Reuters reported that the company planned to meet with them on November 18. These developments keep attention focused on continuity of execution. Reuters quoted a portfolio manager as saying, "The risk is execution," and describing Huang as "the lead conductor of an exceptionally complex orchestra."