Who Is Colette Kress? The Finance Chief Taking Over Nvidia After 33 Years of Jensen Huang
Four Days After Backing Jensen Huang, Nvidia Named His Replacement
On Sunday, Nvidia’s board expressed confidence in Jensen Huang. By Thursday, 12 November 2026, the man who had led the chipmaker for 33 years had resigned as chief executive, president and director, effective immediately. Finance chief Colette Kress took over as interim CEO. Nvidia shares fell more than 10% in US pre-market trading.
The resignation followed two developments that posed different problems for the board. The first was a reported relationship with a woman US authorities reportedly suspect of working for Chinese intelligence. The second was a report of a relationship with a senior Nvidia employee who answered to Huang. Huang publicly acknowledged being unfaithful. Nvidia has announced an independent investigation, and its resignation statement gives no specific finding as the reason for his departure.
Kress now has five days before Nvidia reports quarterly results. The figures will largely describe a business run by Huang. The outlook will be the first that investors hear under his successor.
Why Did Jensen Huang Resign?
On 8 November, Huang sent employees a message apologising to his wife, children and colleagues. He acknowledged infidelity and said he wanted to earn back their confidence. The board that day described him as the reported target of a foreign intelligence effort. It said it had no reason at that point to believe Nvidia secrets or US national security had been compromised.
That distinction matters. A person can be targeted for intelligence gathering without knowingly helping the people targeting them. A board can also have good reason to investigate an executive’s exposure before it knows whether anyone obtained information. Huang’s admission established the infidelity. It did not establish espionage, the transfer of chip designs or the disclosure of confidential negotiations.
On Tuesday, independent directors named former acting US attorney Joon H. Kim and his firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, to conduct the inquiry. On Wednesday, a separate relationship was reported, this time involving a senior Nvidia executive who reported to Huang. Reuters reported that the board met that day to consider his removal. On Thursday, Nvidia announced his resignation.
The second report helps explain how the board’s position could change so quickly. A relationship within a chief executive’s reporting line raises questions a board can examine inside its own company. Who made decisions about the executive’s pay, performance and promotion? Could colleagues raise concerns through a channel independent of the CEO? Those questions would matter even if investigators ultimately found that no foreign party obtained sensitive information.
The public record supports that sequence. The directors have not disclosed which consideration determined their decision, and the resignation itself does not settle either inquiry.
Who Is Running Nvidia Now?
Colette Kress is holding two jobs. She remains chief financial officer while serving as interim chief executive. She joined Nvidia in September 2013, after finance roles at Cisco and Microsoft. She has spent more than a decade inside the company making and explaining financial decisions as it grew into a supplier of AI infrastructure.
The board made a second appointment that deserves nearly as much attention. Harvey C. Jones, a former chief executive of chip-design software company Synopsys, became Nvidia’s first board chair. Kress has responsibility for running the business. Jones gives the board an identifiable leader while independent directors oversee the investigation and the company looks for a permanent CEO.
Nvidia will consider internal and external candidates. Kress therefore has the authority to act now, while the directors retain the option to choose someone else for the long term. An internal appointment could preserve working relationships among the people designing chips, building software and serving customers. An outsider could bring a different approach to oversight. Either candidate would need to answer a more specific question than whether they can fill Huang’s shoes. Which decisions did colleagues routinely take to the founder, and who should own those decisions now?
What Changes for Nvidia’s Customers?
Imagine a cloud provider already building a data centre around Nvidia equipment. It has to arrange power, cooling, networking, software and a workforce able to operate the machines. A change of chief executive gives that customer little reason, by itself, to tear up work already under way. The board said on Thursday that it expected operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap to continue without interruption.
The more revealing conversation concerns the next data centre. Before committing to another generation of equipment, a buyer wants to know when the systems will arrive, how much computing power they will deliver and who can resolve a delay that puts an entire facility behind schedule. Huang could speak for Nvidia across those questions. Kress and her technical leadership now have to show customers how to get equally authoritative answers.
Huang also helped turn Nvidia into an investor in companies that use its technology. That gives his successor a decision more complicated than selling another chip. If Nvidia invests in an infrastructure partner that then buys Nvidia systems, shareholders need to understand both sides of the transaction. How attractive is the investment in its own right? How much customer demand would exist without Nvidia’s financial participation? Kress’s experience as CFO is especially relevant here. She can explain how the company evaluates those commitments and whether its criteria will change.
Competitors have an opening when customers are planning future purchases. To convert uncertainty at Nvidia into an order, a rival still has to offer hardware, software, capacity and support that make switching worthwhile. The appointment of an interim CEO alone tells us little about whether a buyer will move.
Why Did NVDA Stock Fall More Than 10%?
Reuters reported a decline of more than 10% before the US market opened on Thursday. That is a pre-market move, not a closing price. It records how some investors priced the news while three important unknowns remained open at once: the outcome of the investigation, the identity of the permanent chief executive and the effect of Huang’s departure on future business.
A share price can fall sharply before a company loses a single order. Suppose investors still expect Nvidia to earn the same amount next quarter, but feel less certain about its ability to repeat that performance three years from now. They may offer less today for each dollar of expected earnings. That change in valuation can happen immediately. Any effect on deliveries, margins or customer commitments takes longer to show up.
There is a further complication in attributing the whole decline to Huang. Investors were already debating whether the enormous sums being committed to AI infrastructure would earn an adequate return. His exit landed in a market already questioning the durability of that spending. A single morning’s trading cannot tell shareholders precisely how much value they had attached to the founder personally.
For UK investors holding Nvidia through a US equity or global index fund, the practical question is the fund’s weighting. As a simple illustration, if Nvidia accounted for 5% of a portfolio immediately before a 10% decline, its direct contribution would be a loss of roughly half a percentage point, assuming everything else stayed flat and exchange rates were unchanged. A sterling investor’s actual result also depends on what the dollar and the other holdings do. The headline move in NVDA is only one part of that calculation.
What Could Send the Shares Higher or Lower From Here?
The first scheduled test is Tuesday, 17 November. Nvidia expects to release its third-quarter fiscal 2027 results at approximately 9.20pm UK time, 4.20pm US Eastern, with the earnings call 40 minutes later. The date was already in the diary. The resignation changes what investors will listen for.
A strong backward-looking quarter would tell shareholders what customers bought while Huang was still in charge. More revealing would be a clear account of expected shipments, any changes in the timing of major orders and who now has authority over strategic investments. If management can describe demand and delivery commitments in specific terms, investors will have a basis for judging how much of the business carries on independently of its founder.
A less reassuring outcome would be customers postponing commitments, senior technical leaders leaving or management becoming less certain about delivery dates. Each would create a route from the leadership crisis to revenue or profit. An adverse investigation finding could affect the shares through a different channel, particularly if it identified weaknesses in how Nvidia protected information or supervised senior executives.
These developments need not move together. Nvidia could report excellent sales while the board faces difficult findings. It could also resolve the investigation satisfactorily just as customers moderate spending for unrelated reasons. An investor trying to understand the next share-price move should ask which of those expectations changed. A precise price target today would imply knowledge of answers that neither the board nor the market yet has.
Where Could Jensen Huang Work Next?
There is no confirmed next employer in Nvidia’s announcement or the reporting reviewed for this article. Huang also resigned from the board, so the announced transition gives him no continuing director role. Reuters reported that he owned approximately 3.61% of the company. Leaving management and disposing of that financial interest are separate decisions.
The most straightforward route back into technology would be as a private investor. Huang could back founders working on semiconductors, robotics or AI infrastructure, areas where his experience would be directly relevant. He could choose the scale and timing of that involvement himself. There is no indication here that he has established such a fund or agreed to join one.
Founding another company is also conceivable. Huang has experience making long-term technical bets and persuading customers to build around them. A new venture would give him control over the product and the people he worked with. Its prospects would depend partly on whether engineers, financial backers and commercial partners were willing to commit while questions about his departure remained open.
Joining an existing chipmaker or cloud company as chief executive would be a more complicated proposition. Its directors would have to consider the investigation, his substantial interest in Nvidia and the commercial sensitivities of hiring a recent supplier or competitor’s CEO. There is no verified basis for naming AMD, Intel, Microsoft or any other company as his destination. Time away from an executive role is a credible possibility in its own right.
The First Question for Colette Kress
When Nvidia reports on Tuesday, the most revealing question may be one a customer could ask just as readily as a shareholder. If a major delivery slips, a partner needs financing or two engineering teams disagree about what to prioritise, who makes the call?
For 33 years, customers and investors knew they could take that question to Jensen Huang. Nvidia has named the person in charge today. Its next earnings call gives Kress an opportunity to show how decisions will work under her leadership, while the board decides who should hold that authority permanently.
Sources
Nvidia’s announcement confirming Huang’s resignation, Kress’s appointment and the succession process. NVIDIA Newsroom
Jensen Huang’s 8 November message to Nvidia employees. NVIDIA Newsroom
Nvidia board statement opening the independent investigation. Statement from NVIDIA Board of Directors
Independent directors’ 10 November statement naming outside counsel. NVIDIA Newsroom
Reuters reporting on the board meeting, Huang’s ownership and the pre-market share-price reaction. Reuters
