Colette Kress Steps In as Nvidia's Interim CEO After Jensen Huang Exits

Jensen Huang's abrupt departure from Nvidia has left the company scrambling to fill one of the most consequential leadership roles in the tech industry. The board moved quickly, naming CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO — but the longer-term succession question is far from settled.

Why Huang Left

Huang, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and built it into a roughly $4 trillion company, resigned following a week of damaging revelations, according to The Guardian World. Multiple allegations of extramarital affairs surfaced, including one involving a person described as a Chinese spy — a situation that had already drawn scrutiny given Nvidia's position at the center of U.S.-China chip tensions. For more background on those security concerns, see China's Alleged Espionage Targeting Nvidia's Jensen Huang and the earlier Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Faces Investigation Over Alleged Affair with Spy.

Huang ran Nvidia in an unusually hands-on way — reportedly managing around 60 direct reports — which gave him tight control over daily operations but also means his exit creates a significant organizational gap. His son and daughter both work at the company, though neither is considered ready to take over.

Who Is Colette Kress?

Kress, 59, joined Nvidia in 2013 after finance roles at Texas Instruments, Microsoft, and Cisco. She's been the face of the company's quarterly earnings calls and has watched Nvidia transform from a graphics card maker focused on gaming into the dominant supplier of AI training hardware. Her net worth reached an estimated $1.2 billion by mid-2026, according to Forbes, which also ranked her among America's top self-made women. Fortune and Forbes have both included her on their most powerful women in business lists.

People who've worked alongside her describe Kress as measured and steady — a noticeable contrast to Huang's more confrontational leadership approach. That reputation may be exactly what the board wanted in a moment of institutional turbulence. Harvey C. Jones, the newly appointed board chair, said in a statement that Kress has "a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position" and that the board has full confidence in her.

There's one complicating detail, though. During a meeting last August, Huang reportedly described Kress as "a deer in the headlights" and suggested she wasn't equipped to help him make decisions. She, for her part, issued a memo to employees praising Huang's 33-year legacy at the company.

Can a Finance Executive Lead an AI Powerhouse?

That's the question investors and analysts are asking out loud. Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, put it plainly: naming Kress interim CEO makes sense for stabilizing markets, but she may not be the long-term visionary Nvidia needs to keep its edge in AI hardware.

It's a fair concern. Nvidia's chips power nearly every major AI system in use today — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Amazon, Meta all depend on them. Whoever leads the company permanently will make calls that ripple across the entire AI industry. Nvidia's history of bold bets, including its early pivot toward AI compute when most dismissed it as a gaming company, required a certain appetite for technical risk that a CFO background doesn't automatically provide.

Who Else Is Being Considered?

The board says it's evaluating both internal and external candidates. Ian Buck, who has been at Nvidia since 2004 and oversees the company's AI hardware and software partnerships, is a credible internal option. Rene Haas, currently CEO of UK-based chip designer Arm Holdings and a former Nvidia VP, has also been mentioned. Lisa Su, CEO of AMD — Nvidia's closest rival in the chip space — is another name in circulation, though her moving from a direct competitor would be unusual.

Kress will serve as both interim CEO and interim CFO while the search plays out. The timing isn't ideal: Nvidia is due to report third-quarter earnings next Tuesday, meaning her first major public test comes almost immediately.

Analysts have also flagged that Kress could face congressional scrutiny over Nvidia's chip sales practices involving entities connected to Chinese military institutions — an issue that has shadowed the company for some time, as covered in Jensen Huang: A Target Amid AI Export Control Controversy.

For now, Nvidia has a steady hand on the wheel. Whether steady is enough for where the company needs to go is the real question.