Jensen Huang Resigns Nvidia CEO Colette Kress Steps In
by: Marcus Webb

Jensen Huang Resigns as Nvidia CEO; Colette Kress Steps In

Jensen Huang, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and ran it for 33 years, resigned as its chief executive on Wednesday night. The company announced it Thursday morning, Nov. 12. Nvidia’s board accepted the resignation on Nov. 11. It covers his roles as president, CEO and board member, effective immediately, according to the company’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while keeping the CFO job, and the board will look at internal and external candidates for a permanent replacement.

Neither the filing nor the press release gives a reason. Huang is not quoted in either. The release thanks him for his “immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry.” Harvey C. Jones, 73, a director since 1993 and a former chief executive of Synopsys, becomes the board’s first-ever chair. “The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team,” Jones said in the release.

The filing calls him by his legal name, Jen-Hsun Huang. Kress, who joined Nvidia as CFO in September 2013, signed it as interim chief executive.

Four days from apology to exit

On Sunday, Nov. 8, Huang told employees in a memo that he had been unfaithful to his wife. “There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry,” he wrote, according to the text Nvidia shared with ABC News. The memo did not name anyone. The New York Times had reported on Oct. 29 that U.S. intelligence believes Alice Huang, an executive at the Singapore data center company Megaspeed, is an asset of China’s Ministry of State Security. The two are not related. The Times reported the affair was with her.

That same Sunday the board opened an independent investigation and said, “The Board has confidence in Jensen and his leadership team,” ABC reported. CNBC reported on Tuesday that the board had hired the law firm Wachtell Lipton for the review.

Late Wednesday, the Times reported that Huang had also had an affair with a senior Nvidia executive, according to CNBC and Yahoo Finance, which both relayed the report. ABC said it had not been able to verify the Times’ account. The Wall Street Journal reported that the board was preparing to meet as soon as Wednesday to decide Huang’s future, ABC said, and the Times and other outlets reported later that day that the meeting took place. Nvidia has not said whether the second report played any part in the decision.

Nvidia shares fell more than 13% when trading opened on Thursday, from a Wednesday close of $173.73, CNBC reported. Yahoo Finance reported a similar early drop and said the shares later pared some of the loss.

The intelligence finding still under wraps

The finding at the center of all this has never been made public. The memo saying Alice Huang worked for Chinese intelligence circulated among Trump administration officials last spring, the Times reported, and no agency has released it or commented on it on the record. Beijing has called the allegations “baseless and purely slanderous smears against China,” ABC reported. Alice Huang and Megaspeed did not respond to ABC’s requests for comment. Bloomberg has reported that she returned to Beijing with the knowledge of Chinese security officials, according to CNBC. That has not been independently confirmed.

The resignation also leaves a question the government hasn’t answered: who knew, and when. On Nov. 9, President Trump said Huang had told him by phone that he had no idea the woman was a spy, and Trump said he believed him. The next day, the Times and CNN reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had briefed Trump in May, aboard Air Force One on the way to China, that Huang was in a relationship with a woman believed to be a Chinese spy. The White House has not commented on that briefing on the record.

On Thursday, Trump posted on Truth Social that Apple’s Tim Cook should take over. “A Legend replaces a Legend!” he wrote, CNBC reported. Neither Nvidia nor Apple has said anything about the suggestion.

Congress isn’t done with him

The resignation doesn’t end the House inquiry. On Nov. 4, three committee chairmen, Brian Mast of Foreign Affairs, John Moolenaar of the China Select Committee and Rick Crawford of Intelligence, asked Huang for a closed-door briefing on Nov. 18 and gave him until Nov. 11 to answer. On Thursday, Mast told CNBC that Huang’s side had replied. “We heard back from their team last night,” he said. “We’re negotiating which day it’s going to be.” He added that he wants Huang in “basically in a week,” and that a subpoena is still an option if the talks don’t go in good faith. Whether Huang would appear in public or behind closed doors hadn’t been settled.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said the resignation “does not absolve him, other executives, or the company as a whole of responsibility,” CNBC reported. She called on Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Jeffrey Kessler, the Commerce under secretary who runs export controls, to explain the gaps in chip enforcement. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he expected “some follow-up.”

That points back to Megaspeed. The Times reported this week that Commerce Department investigators spent months building a smuggling case against the company before the Justice Department took it over. In August 2025, Nvidia’s general counsel emailed them, saying Kessler had given him permission to get in touch. Axios has reported that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent clashed with Lutnick over why Commerce hadn’t put Megaspeed on its trade blacklist, according to CNBC. A White House official told CNBC that Trump “maintains complete confidence” in Lutnick. Megaspeed denies wrongdoing. The Justice Department hasn’t commented on its investigation, and no charges have been filed. Our earlier piece on the Megaspeed probe covers the Commerce records and Bloomberg’s trade-data findings in detail.

Nvidia still plans to report its third-quarter results on Tuesday, Nov. 17, according to the release. This story is developing.

Sources

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