Jensen Huang has resigned as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Nvidia, effective immediately, the company announced on Thursday, November 12, 2026 .
The resignation ends Huang’s 33-year run at the helm of the company he co-founded in 1993, which he transformed from a graphics-chip maker into the world’s most valuable AI infrastructure company, currently worth over $4 trillion .
The Nvidia Board of Directors appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as Interim CEO. Kress will continue in her CFO role while serving as interim CEO until a permanent successor is named. The Board has initiated a search and will consider both internal and external candidates .
The Board also appointed Harvey C. Jones, former CEO and Executive Chairman of Synopsys, as its first-ever Chair of the Board .
Huang’s departure follows a week of escalating revelations that began on Sunday, November 8, when he acknowledged in a message to employees that he had been “unfaithful” to his wife of more than 40 years, Lori Huang .
The woman involved was identified as Alice Huang (no relation), a senior executive at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed. US intelligence officials reportedly believe Alice Huang was an asset of China’s Ministry of State Security, a claim Beijing has denied .
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Huang had a second extramarital affair, this time with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, who reported directly to him .
According to the Times, citing five former Nvidia employees, Huang and Powell were seen being affectionate at a hotel in San Jose, California, during the company’s GTC conference in March 2026. A bystander allegedly filmed the interaction before Huang’s security personnel intervened and attempted to have the person sign a non-disclosure agreement .
Nvidia’s code of conduct instructs employees to avoid conflicts of interest, including “personal relationships” .
Nvidia shares fell more than 10 per cent in premarket trading on Thursday, dropping to around $156—their lowest level since June 2025 . The stock had already fallen nearly 8 per cent over the previous four days as the scandal unfolded .
The company’s market value, which had peaked at over $4.5 trillion, tumbled toward $3.8 trillion, putting it roughly level with Microsoft but behind Apple .
Analysts expressed concern about the timing. Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives wrote that Huang had “created a black eye moment for himself and Nvidia and now has created a spider web of complexity that Wall Street, Silicon Valley, DC and the global tech ecosystem are trying to figure out what is next” .
Stacy Rasgon of Bernstein Research halved the firm’s share price target for Nvidia, writing that “our gut tells us we probably haven’t fully probed the depths of what might be found here” .
Kress, who joined Nvidia as CFO in September 2013, has been a familiar face on the company’s earnings calls for over a decade. Before Nvidia, she spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at Cisco and Microsoft .
Kress said she was committed to “building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years” .
“Kress fronts every earnings call alongside Huang and is a familiar and trusted voice for the market at a time when it badly needs one,” said Josh Gilbert, an analyst at eToro. However, he noted that the company, known for its technological edge, might ultimately prefer an engineer in the top job .
Potential internal successors include Chris Malachowsky, Nvidia’s co-founder, and Ian Buck, who oversees Nvidia’s high-performance computing business. External candidates floated by analysts include Apple’s Tim Cook and Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas .
The Nvidia board announced on November 8 that it had launched an independent investigation into reports that Huang was the “target of a foreign intelligence effort.” The board said at the time it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised .
Independent directors retained former acting US Attorney Joon H. Kim and law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct the investigation .
The FBI is also investigating the matter, and three Republican chairmen of influential House committees have requested Huang appear for a closed-door briefing on his relationship with Alice Huang and Megaspeed’s security protocols .
Nvidia said it will release its third-quarter fiscal 2027 financial results as scheduled on November 17 .
