Nvidia names Colette Kress interim CEO as Jensen Huang resigns

Nvidia's board moved quickly after Jensen Huang's resignation, elevating Colette Kress, who joined the company in 2013 when Huang personally recruited her. At the time, Nvidia was still best known for gaming graphics cards, and Huang laid out a vision on a whiteboard for how the company could become a major supplier of computing infrastructure for artificial intelligence. Kress has since been responsible for managing Nvidia's relationship with Wall Street, often detailing financial performance, customer demand and supply constraints on earnings calls.

The scandal surrounding Huang escalated rapidly. Nvidia's board said on Sunday it was launching an independent investigation following a New York Times report that Huang had an affair with Alice Huang, a woman US officials suspected of being a Chinese intelligence asset. WIRED reported on Monday that Huang had quietly hired a crisis communications firm sometime last year, and by October of 2025 the firm was being looped in on all press inquiries involving Huang at Nvidia. Around the same time, The New York Times reported that US authorities were investigating whether a company linked to Alice Huang had helped Chinese firms evade US chip export controls through its subsidiaries.

Kress was among the most obvious candidates to fill the void, according to multiple tech executives and industry analysts who follow Nvidia closely, given her long tenure, credibility with investors and deep familiarity with the company's business and finances. A former Nvidia executive described her as extremely strong-willed, professional and whip smart, with a keen sense for how Huang thinks. Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategies called her the logical choice, noting she has credibility with investors because she answers hard questions directly. However, the former executive also noted that Kress lacks the same engineering and technical expertise Huang brought to the role and has shied away from being at the center of public attention—a leadership style that might be a welcome temporary change given the intense scrutiny surrounding Huang lately.