Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Steps Down; Colette Kress Named Interim Chief

Washington: US chipmaker Nvidia announced on Thursday that co-founder and chief executive Jensen Huang is stepping down, while chief financial officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO until a permanent successor is found.

The company also named former Synopsys CEO and board member Harvey Jones as its first-ever board chairman. Huang will also leave the board. He is the company’s fourth-largest investor, holding around 3.61 per cent of its shares.

Express Tribune reported that the decision followed reports of two alleged extramarital relationships involving Huang. According to the reports, the 63-year-old had a relationship with Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang, whom US officials regard as an aide to Chinese intelligence. Another report said he also had a relationship with a senior female executive at the company. A source familiar with the matter said the board discussed his dismissal on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Huang had done an excellent job for the country and said he had not known that the woman was a spy.

Following the announcement, Nvidia’s shares fell by more than 10 per cent in pre-market trading, and the wider market was also affected. Michael Feldman, portfolio manager at Clearbridge Investments, said the real risk was not technology but execution, as Huang had been the central manager of a highly complex system.

Colette Kress joined Nvidia in September 2013 as executive vice president and CFO. Before that, she spent eight years at Texas Instruments, worked in financial roles at Microsoft from 1997 to 2010, and at Cisco from 2010 to 2013. In the fiscal year she joined, the company’s revenue was $4.13 billion, which rose to $215.9 billion in fiscal 2026.

She holds a BS in finance from the University of Arizona and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. In Forbes’ 2026 list of the richest self-made women in America, she ranks 32nd, and at Wednesday’s closing bell her shares were worth about $750 million.