Nvidia founder Jensen Huang resigns as chief executive after 33 years

#EBR_News Nov 12, 2026

Nvidia, the company whose chips power much of today’s artificial intelligence (AI), said on Thursday that founder Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive and board member with immediate effect.

In a statement, the company said Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress has agreed to serve as interim chief executive while keeping her finance role until a permanent successor is named. The board, it said, has started a search and will consider both internal and external candidates.

The company also appointed Harvey C. Jones as the first-ever chair of its board. According to the statement, Jones has spent more than 30 years as an entrepreneur, technology executive and venture investor, and previously served as chief executive and executive chairman of Synopsys, a chip design software firm.

The announcement follows days of reports about Huang’s personal relationships. CNN reported that the board met late on Wednesday after reports that he had a relationship with a senior Nvidia executive, and that he was already under scrutiny over reports of an affair with a woman allegedly working as a spy for China, with the board hiring a law firm to investigate.

The two women are Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based cloud company Megaspeed, and Kimberly Powell, who leads Nvidia’s health care unit. Other report said US intelligence officials have identified Alice Huang as a suspected Chinese operative, while Chinese state media called the claims “entirely baseless”.

Harvey said the board has “full confidence” in Colette and the leadership team, and expects operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap to continue without interruption.

Colette said she is committed to building on the foundation Jensen created over 33 years. Nvidia’s statement described Jensen’s contributions as profound and thanked him for his contribution to the company and the industry.

Colette joined Nvidia in September 2013 after nearly 25 years in finance roles at companies including Cisco and Microsoft, according to the company. The New York Times reported that Nvidia’s annual sales rose from $4.28 billion in 2013 to $215.9 billion in the latest fiscal year.

CNN reported that shares fell about 10 percent in premarket trading on Thursday, and noted that the stock’s size in the S&P 500 means its swings affect retirement funds worldwide. Ynet reported that the company has lost nearly $600 billion in market value since the controversy emerged.

Nvidia designs the advanced processors used to train and run AI systems, from chatbots to cloud services, so a leadership change at the top matters well beyond Silicon Valley.