Jensen Huang has resigned as Nvidia’s president, chief executive and board member, the chipmaker said on Thursday, ending a 33-year run at the top after a fortnight of reports about his private life.
In a press release, the board said Huang had resigned “effective immediately”.
Colette Kress, chief financial officer since 2013, will serve as interim chief executive while keeping the CFO job.
Harvey C. Jones, a director since 1993 and a former Synopsys chief executive, becomes the board’s “first-ever” chair.
The board said it would search for a permanent CEO and “consider internal and external candidates”.
Nvidia shares fell 7.51% to $160.68 at the time of writing.
How Huang’s exit unfolded
The pressure built in just over two weeks.
On October 29, The New York Times reported that US intelligence officials suspected Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore’s Megaspeed, of being a Chinese intelligence asset close to the Nvidia chief.
The two are not related, and China has denied the spying claims.
On November 8, Huang told staff he had been unfaithful to his wife.
The board opened an independent review into whether he had been “the target of a foreign intelligence effort”, while saying it had “confidence in Jensen and his leadership team”.
Shares fell 4.2% on November 9 and 5.4% on November 10.
The company’s independent directors announced they had retained former acting US Attorney Joon H. Kim and his firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct the investigation.
On November 11, The New York Times reported that Huang had a separate relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of healthcare and one of his direct reports.
Hours later, The Wall Street Journal reported that the board was preparing to oust Huang.
The stock closed at $215.38 on October 28, the day before the first Times report.
The stock has fallen 25% since then.
Based on the 24.1 billion shares Nvidia reported in its latest 10-Q, that is a fall in market value from about $5.2 trillion to about $3.8 trillion.
Who could take over permanently?
Kress is now in charge, but only on an interim basis.
Analysts had floated her for that role before the announcement, and Semafor reported that some directors favoured her.
“Colette has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of extraordinary growth,” Jones said in the release, adding that the board expects operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap “to continue without interruption”.
For the permanent job, several analysts have pointed to an engineer. Josh Gilbert, lead analyst at eToro, told Reuters the board “would likely want an engineer in the chair”, naming Ian Buck, the data centre executive credited with creating CUDA.
Armina Rosenberg of Minotaur Capital, which holds Nvidia shares, suggested to Reuters a possible pairing of Kress with a technology leader such as Buck.
Semafor reported, citing one person, that Apple hardware chief Johny Srouji was being considered, and that the board had discussed adding a chief operating officer.
The Associated Press has mentioned co-founder Chris Malachowsky.
Outsiders such as Google Cloud’s Thomas Kurian and AWS’s Matt Garman have been floated, according to Business Insider.
What it means for Nvidia and the AI trade
Nvidia’s annual report warns that it is “highly dependent on the services of our longstanding executive team” and that weak succession planning could hurt its execution.
That risk has now arrived without a plan in place.
Analysts cut their ratings overnight, before the resignation was confirmed. Bernstein’s Stacy Rasgon cut his target to $200 but told clients, that the fundamentals “are clearly still intact”.
Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives & Co. said in a note that Nvidia was worth $300 a share with Huang and $225 without him.
KeyBanc’s John Vinh said the exit warrants “a higher risk premium and lower valuation multiple”.
Michael Feldman of ClearBridge Investments told the Guardian a new CEO would likely “want to establish credibility by setting a more conservative bar” than Huang’s growth targets.
That split suggests investors are treating this, for now, as an Nvidia governance problem rather than a sign that AI demand is fading.
UBS’s Mark Haefele said the episode “reinforces the importance of investment diversification”.
What comes next for Jensen Huang
Huang has not commented publicly on his resignation, and Nvidia’s release says nothing about his plans.
He leaves with no executive or board role, but with a large stake.
Nvidia’s 2026 proxy put his holding at 3.58% in March, roughly $140 billion at Thursday’s market price, according to Invezz’s calculations.
His shares carry one vote each, so he cannot control the board.
He may still face questions.
The board’s review of the Megaspeed reports has not published findings, and three House committee chairs had asked Huang for a closed-door briefing on November 18.
The next test is Nvidia’s third-quarter results on November 17.
It will be Kress’s first as interim CEO, and investors will watch whether she keeps Huang’s guidance.
AI disclosure: AI tools assisted with research and drafting of this piece. An Invezz editor reviewed the facts, sources and wording before publication. Any opinions or analysis are Invezz’s, not those of an automated system.
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