Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO; Colette Kress steps in

Jensen Huang, the 63-year-old co-founder of Nvidia, is no longer the company's chief executive after 33 years. According to TechCrunch, Nvidia confirmed in an SEC filing on Thursday, November 12, 2026, that its board had accepted his resignation on Wednesday. Chief financial officer Colette Kress takes over as interim CEO while keeping her CFO duties. Below, established facts and unconfirmed allegations are kept apart.

What is confirmed about the resignation?

According to ZDNet France, the board announced on November 12 that Huang had resigned as chair, CEO and director, with immediate effect. Kress, executive vice president and CFO, will serve until a permanent successor is named. An interim CEO is a leader appointed temporarily, with full authority, while the board looks for a permanent one. ZDNet France adds that the board has started a search among internal and external candidates.

Harvey C. Jones, a former CEO of Synopsys who has sat on Nvidia's board since 1993 according to TechCrunch, becomes the first-ever chair of the board, according to CNBC. TechCrunch also notes that Huang had about 60 direct reports, by his own account, and that Nvidia had no obvious successor or succession plan.

The crisis began earlier. According to TechCrunch, Huang wrote to employees on Sunday, November 8, in a letter also published as a press release, that he had been unfaithful to his wife and apologized. In the same letter he said the board had opened an independent investigation, which he supported. TechCrunch reports that Nvidia shares slid more than 5% the following day.

What is alleged but not confirmed?

The points below are reports attributed to media outlets or officials. Nvidia has not confirmed them, and none of the sources read for this article reports a criminal charge against anyone.

• TechCrunch reports that U.S. officials believe Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive and no relation to Jensen Huang, is a Chinese spy who passed information to Beijing. According to the Financial Times, cited by CNBC, Huang had a romantic relationship with her. His letter to staff did not name her.
• Megaspeed is a Singapore-based AI infrastructure company that reportedly bought $4.8 billion of Nvidia chips over two years, according to TechCrunch. The U.S. and Singapore had investigated it over suspicion that it illegally shared chips with China, and the Justice Department has taken over the federal case, according to the New York Times as relayed by TechCrunch.
• CNBC reported on Thursday, in a story it describes as exclusive, that Alice Huang is also tied to Huawei, Nvidia's biggest competitor in China, and may have owned stakes in Chinese businesses that benefited Huawei.
• The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing five current or former employees, that Huang had another relationship with a vice president who reports directly to him. According to TechCrunch, Nvidia, Huang and the executive have not confirmed it.
• Reuters reported on Thursday a further relationship with another, unnamed Nvidia employee, according to TechCrunch and CNBC.

What does Congress want from Huang?

On November 5, three Republican committee chairmen asked Huang for a closed-door briefing on the national security concerns raised by the reports, according to TechCrunch. They are John Moolenaar (House Select Committee on China), Brian Mast (House Foreign Affairs) and Rick Crawford (House Intelligence). Moolenaar said on November 11 that Huang would likely be subpoenaed if he declined.

On November 12, Huang confirmed he would testify before Congress at some point before Thanksgiving, November 26, according to TechCrunch. The session is expected to be behind closed doors, but Mast believes it will be recorded and transcribed. Mast also said he and Huang had disagreed on export controls and that Huang has serious questions to answer.

How did the market react?

Nvidia shares fell 4.34% on Thursday, according to CNBC, after losing as much as 14% earlier in the session. The market value hovered just under $4 trillion for most of the day and closed slightly above it. Before the resignation, several Wall Street analysts told CNBC the departure could cost the stock 20%.

Bernstein cut its price target in half, from $400 to $200, according to CNBC. D.A. Davidson lowered its target from $300 to $200 but kept a buy rating, saying it expects a challenging transition over the next few months. CNBC adds that shares are down 11% on the week, a sixth straight weekly decline and the longest losing streak since 2012. The stock has lost about 29%, roughly $1.6 trillion of market value, since early October, and fell below Apple in value. CNBC attributes part of the previous week's drop to the U.S. midterm elections and to interest-rate worries, so the Huang affair is not the only factor.

Who is Colette Kress, and what is her first test?

According to ZDNet France, Kress joined Nvidia in September 2013 after finance roles at Texas Instruments, Microsoft and Cisco. She presents the company's results to analysts each quarter. Over that period Nvidia moved from making graphics chips for video games to sitting at the center of AI infrastructure, with revenue of $215.9 billion in fiscal 2026. ZDNet France stresses that she is a finance executive, not an engineer.

ZDNet France lists her main tasks: stabilizing an organization that depended on Huang's personal involvement, from product development to major customer relations, redefining the roles of the leadership team, and strengthening internal control and compliance, including executive conflicts of interest and export-control rules. It says her medium-term strategy, investments and acquisitions are still unknown. In a message to staff, she thanked employees for their resilience and said she wants to build on what Huang created over 33 years.

The first test comes on Tuesday, November 17, when Nvidia is due to report third-quarter fiscal 2027 results as planned. According to CNBC, analysts polled by LSEG expect revenue of $108.9 billion, up 91% from a year earlier. Oppenheimer expects solid numbers but says fundamentals will take a back seat near term and that Huang's departure could leave a lingering share overhang.

What this changes for a company that buys Nvidia chips

None of the sources read reports any change to Nvidia's products or deliveries, and the company said it would keep its results date. For a business that relies on Nvidia GPUs, the immediate effect is therefore uncertainty about leadership, not supply. This is our analysis, not a reported fact: it is sensible to follow the November 17 earnings call for signals on strategy, to check how much a contract or roadmap depends on one supplier, and to document the origin and reseller chain of any export-controlled hardware you buy, since the Megaspeed case shows that intermediaries are scrutinized. A permanent CEO announcement, and the content of Huang's congressional testimony, are the next two dates to watch.