Nvidia announced on Thursday, November 12, that Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive officer and a member of the board, effective immediately, ending 33 years at the head of the company he co-founded in 1993. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim chief executive while the board searches for a permanent successor, and longtime director Harvey C. Jones becomes Nvidia's first-ever chair of the board.
"The Board of Directors announced today that Jensen Huang has resigned as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board, effective immediately," the board said in its statement. "Colette Kress, current Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NVIDIA, has agreed to serve as Interim Chief Executive Officer. Kress will continue to serve as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer while serving as Interim Chief Executive Officer until a permanent successor has been named. The Board is initiating a search for a permanent Chief Executive Officer and will consider internal and external candidates."
A board meeting on Wednesday, an announcement before the open
Reuters reported that Nvidia's board met on Wednesday to consider Huang's ouster, citing a person familiar with the matter, and that the announcement came about 42 minutes before the market opened on Thursday. The Wall Street Journal had reported on Wednesday that the board was preparing to oust Huang. Nvidia gave no reason for the departure in its statement and, according to Reuters, has not commented beyond it.
Kress, who joined Nvidia in September 2013 and previously held finance roles at Cisco and Microsoft, told employees in a memo that "this has been an extraordinarily difficult period," according to the Journal, and said she would host a company meeting on November 18. "Colette has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position," Harvey Jones, chair of the Nvidia board, said in the statement. "She is supported by an experienced leadership team that has been instrumental in executing NVIDIA's strategy and advancing its technology roadmap."
"NVIDIA's strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years," Kress said in the statement. Nvidia will report its third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Tuesday, November 17, at about 1:20 p.m. PT, as previously scheduled, followed by an earnings call at 2 p.m. PT.
How the scandal unfolded
The crisis began on October 29, when The New York Times reported that Huang had an affair with Alice Huang, a Singapore-based executive at the cloud company Megaspeed, whom U.S. authorities have concluded was a Chinese intelligence asset. The two, who have been photographed together in Taiwan, Singapore and California, are not related. Beijing has denied that Alice Huang is a spy, and Washington has investigated Megaspeed over suspicions it helped China obtain advanced AI chips restricted under U.S. export controls, according to media reports cited by Reuters. Megaspeed issued its first statement on the matter on Thursday, saying it takes its obligation to comply with U.S. export control laws "extremely seriously."
Huang, 63, who is married to Lori Huang, admitted in a statement on November 8 that he had been unfaithful, without naming the person. Earlier this month, Nvidia's board launched a probe, led by independent directors with outside legal counsel, into whether Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation, Reuters reported.
The crisis deepened on Wednesday, November 11, when the Times reported, citing five sources, that Huang also had an affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of health care, who reported directly to him. Then on Thursday, Reuters reported that Huang had a relationship with a second, unnamed Nvidia employee, citing two people familiar with the matter; Reuters said it was not naming her and that attempts to reach her were not successful. That was the third relationship reported in connection with the resignation. Huang has hired the law firm Paul Weiss, according to a person familiar with the matter cited by Reuters.
Nvidia did not address Huang's actions in its statement. He has admitted to an extramarital affair without naming the person, Reuters noted.
The market's verdict
Nvidia shares tumbled more than 13 percent as markets opened on Thursday, and the company has shed nearly $300 billion in market value this week alone, according to The Indian Express. The stock hit an intraday low of $148.80 before recovering to close at $166.19, down 4.3 percent ($7.54) from the previous close of $173.73, according to market data from Finnhub and StockAnalysis, and regained about 1 percent in after-hours trading to $167.82. The shares have fallen 26 percent since the Times first reported on October 29 about Alice Huang, Reuters reported, and are about 32 percent below their 52-week high of $243.37, reached on October 6.
The fall leaves a company worth about $4 trillion, the world's second-largest by market value, without the leader who built it into the dominant force in artificial intelligence. Huang, who oversaw some 60 direct reports, remains Nvidia's fourth-largest shareholder with a stake of about 3.61 percent, Reuters reported. Prediction markets already have a view on the succession: Nvidia executive Ian Buck leads with 29 percent odds, followed by Kress at about 28 percent, according to Polymarket figures cited by Barron's.
Washington moves in
The resignation has already spilled into politics. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he had spoken to Huang and that Huang told him he did not know the woman linked to him was allegedly a spy, Reuters reported, and on Thursday Trump posted on social media that former Apple chief executive Tim Cook should replace Huang: "NOW THAT Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place – TIM COOK of Apple. A Legend replaces a Legend!"
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott sent letters on Thursday to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and to Huang, asking them to testify over recent developments at Nvidia, Reuters reported. Senior White House officials are also discussing whether Lutnick should be pushed out in the wake of the scandal, according to two people familiar with the situation cited by Reuters. And lawmakers from both parties are pushing for tougher restrictions on China's access to advanced AI chips: House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Thursday that the growing consensus in Congress favors new export restrictions. Nvidia's revenue from chip sales to Chinese data centers is near zero for now, according to an August company statement, and the company does not expect that to change in the third quarter.
What is still not known
The board's probe into whether Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence operation is still open, and no conclusion has been announced. The identity of the second employee named in Reuters' Thursday report has not been disclosed. Nvidia has given no reason for the resignation, so it is not confirmed whether the reported affairs, the probe or the board's decision was the cause. No permanent successor has been named, and it is not yet clear whether the upheaval will change U.S. chip export policy or Nvidia's roadmap. The first test for the new leadership comes on Tuesday, November 17, when Nvidia reports quarterly results.
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Sources: NVIDIA Newsroom, November 12, 2026; Reuters, November 12, 2026; Reuters, November 12, 2026; Reuters, November 12, 2026; Reuters, November 12, 2026; The Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2026; Barron's, November 12, 2026; The Indian Express, November 13, 2026; market data: Finnhub and StockAnalysis. Cover photo: Jensen Huang at CES in Las Vegas in January 2017, by Maurizio Pesce, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Archive photo.