Colette Kress Takes Over as Nvidia Interim CEO After Jensen Huang Resigns

Nvidia named Colette Kress, the company's executive vice president and chief financial officer since 2013, as interim CEO on Thursday in Chicago, after co-founder Jensen Huang resigned following reports of extramarital affairs. The announcement places a twelve-year veteran of the chipmaker's finance operation at the top of the company that supplies what the source describes as the leading building blocks for artificial intelligence, at the most tumultuous moment in its recent history.

Kress confirmed the appointment in a statement on Thursday, in which she said Nvidia's "strength has always come from its people" and that she was "committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years." She added that the company will "continue advancing the work that has made NVIDIA a leader in accelerated computing and AI."

Who is Colette Kress?

Kress joined the California-based chipmaker in 2013, according to the source, and has served as its executive vice president and CFO ever since. Her career before Nvidia spans three of the industry's best-known names: she held a variety of roles at Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments, according to her executive bio on Nvidia's website.

Her most consequential work at Nvidia, by the source's account, came in the CFO seat. Kress was a key architect of financing deals with many of the company's biggest customers, a list that today includes AI titans such as Anthropic and CoreWeave. Those arrangements matter because Nvidia's high-end chips have emerged as the leading hardware foundation for artificial intelligence systems, which makes the financing structures around its largest customers a strategic lever for the company's growth.

Now she steps into the top post at the company amid what the source calls its most tumultuous chapter yet.

Why did Jensen Huang resign?

Huang, who co-founded Nvidia more than three decades ago and became, in the source's words, a singular figure in the tech world, resigned Thursday after reports of his extramarital affairs came into the spotlight this week.

The pressure built in two stages. First, The New York Times reported on Huang's relationship with a woman alleged to be a Chinese spy, prompting growing calls for him to step down. Then, late Wednesday, the Times and later other outlets found that Huang was said to have had another affair, this one with an Nvidia employee.

Huang apologized for being unfaithful to his wife, the source notes, in a separate statement. China's Foreign Ministry has dismissed the spying allegations, according to the source.

Nvidia's own response is still unfolding. The company did not directly address the affairs in Thursday's announcement, the source reports. But over the weekend — before the resignation — Nvidia said it was investigating whether Huang was "the target of a foreign intelligence effort," the company's phrasing as quoted by the source.

What does the leadership change mean for Nvidia's AI business?

The stakes are considerable. Nvidia's high-end chips are, by the source's description, the leading building blocks for artificial intelligence, and the company's customer base now includes some of the most prominent names in the AI industry, including Anthropic, the AI lab, and CoreWeave, the cloud infrastructure provider. Kress, as CFO, helped architect the financing deals with those customers — deals that tied Nvidia's fortunes directly to the capital spending of the AI boom.

Her stated priorities signal continuity rather than redirection. In her Thursday statement, she committed to building on the foundation Huang created over the last 33 years, and to continuing Nvidia's work in accelerated computing (the use of specialized hardware to speed up compute-intensive workloads such as AI training and inference) and AI.

That message matters for a company navigating both a leadership vacuum and an unresolved security question. Nvidia has said it is investigating whether its now-former CEO was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort; China's Foreign Ministry has dismissed the spying allegations. The source does not report a timeline for completing that investigation, nor for naming a permanent CEO.

What happens next?

Kress holds the interim title, and the source does not report a succession process or a search for a permanent chief executive. What the record shows is this: a CFO with twelve years at Nvidia, a pre-2013 résumé spanning Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments, and direct responsibility for the financing relationships with Anthropic and CoreWeave, now running the company whose chips underpin the AI industry's buildout.

Her first public words as interim CEO framed the mandate in Huang's own terms — the 33-year foundation, the leadership in accelerated computing and AI. Whether that foundation holds through the investigation Nvidia disclosed over the weekend, and through the questions raised by the reporting on Huang's conduct, will define Kress's tenure, however long it lasts.