Nvidia Names Colette Kress Interim CEO After Board Ousts Jensen Huang

Colette Kress, Nvidia's chief financial officer of 13 years and one of the richest self-made women in America, is now interim CEO of the company whose chips anchor the artificial intelligence boom. Nvidia's board installed her Thursday after ousting co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang amid reports of alleged extramarital affairs involving a woman reportedly accused of being a Chinese spy. The appointment puts one of the most powerful women in technology at the helm of the dominant supplier of AI computing hardware.

The stakes are considerable. Nvidia's revenue has grown from $4.13 billion in the fiscal year Kress joined to $215.9 billion in fiscal 2026, according to the company's earnings reports. Investors, already rattled by the abrupt shakeup, now face the first major test of Nvidia's trajectory without Huang, the executive widely credited as the architect of its AI dominance.

Who is Colette Kress?

Kress, 59, ranks No. 32 on Forbes' list of America's richest self-made women, with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion. Her Nvidia shareholdings were valued at roughly $750 million as of Wednesday, according to Reuters, following a stock decline triggered by the leadership shakeup.

She joined Nvidia in 2013 after her sons told her about the chipmaker's prominence in the video game industry, she said in a 2023 interview with the Israeli business outlet Globes. At the time, Nvidia's operations centered largely on gaming technology — years before the company became a dominant force in AI computing.

Kress described Nvidia at that moment as "the smallest company that I'd ever worked for," she told Fortune in 2024. That is a notable claim from an executive who had already spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at major technology companies. Her arrival at a gaming-centric chip firm looked, on paper, like a step down; the company's subsequent growth has reversed that judgment entirely.

Her finance career began well before Nvidia:

• Eight years in various finance roles at Texas Instruments, according to Forbes.
• Thirteen years at Microsoft, from 1997 to 2010, where she became chief financial officer of the Server and Tools division, holding that post for her final four years there.
• Three years at Cisco from 2010, as senior vice president and CFO of its Business Technology and Operations Finance organization, with responsibility for financial strategy, planning, reporting and business development.

Kress holds a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Arizona and a Master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University.

The pattern is clear: two decades of operational finance inside large hardware and software companies before she took the CFO seat at what was then a mid-sized chipmaker. The takeaway is that Kress arrives at the top job with deep institutional knowledge of Nvidia and a long record in tech finance, not as an outside turnaround hire.

What did she say about Nvidia's transformation?

Kress has been one of Nvidia's most visible interpreters to investors during its transformation from gaming graphics company to AI infrastructure giant. In her 2023 Globes interview, she argued that the market finally understood what Nvidia had been building.

"I think more investors really now understand who we are — because 10 years ago, probably few could articulate our long-term vision," she told Globes.

She also offered a vivid measure of the company's rise in public recognition: "I call it the 'supermarket test'. Years ago, if you walked into the grocery store wearing a green Nvidia shirt, some people wouldn't understand what that was. Today, I believe that people know our company, and are learning what graphic processors can do for artificial intelligence."

Both quotes predate her elevation to interim CEO by years, which matters. They reflect a CFO marketing Nvidia's story to investors — not the strategic commitments of a chief executive running the company through an abrupt transition. In plain words: Kress has long argued Nvidia's growth story, and now she has to prove she can run it.

What did Kress promise as interim CEO?

In a statement following her appointment as interim CEO and CFO, Kress stressed continuity. She kept her finance role while adding the top job, concentrating unusually broad authority in one executive during the transition.

"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," she said.

"We will continue advancing the work that has made NVIDIA a leader in accelerated computing and AI, and execute on the opportunities ahead. Our focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders."

The statement names no strategic change, no new product direction and no timeline for a permanent CEO appointment. It commits to continuity — a defensible message amid investor concern, but one that leaves open how Nvidia plans to replace the founder who defined it.

What do the compensation filings show?

Regulatory filings show Kress's compensation includes restricted stock units (company shares that vest — become hers to keep — only after set conditions are met), including a March 2026 award scheduled to vest over four years.

The filings also reveal a structural detail with direct bearing on the shakeup: Nvidia operates under an at-will employment arrangement, unlike many competing technology companies. That arrangement allows the company to terminate top executives without owing them a pre-negotiated severance payout.

The implication is straightforward. The board could remove Huang — and can remove any executive — without a costly contractual exit, which lowers the financial friction of leadership changes. The caveat: the same structure applies to Kress, whose own position carries no severance protection either.

Why does this matter for the AI industry?

Nvidia's chips and computing systems have become the backbone of the AI boom, which makes its leadership stability a question for the entire industry. Hyperscale cloud providers, AI laboratories and enterprises building on Nvidia's hardware now depend on a company in the middle of its most abrupt leadership transition in 33 years.

Kress's dual role as interim CEO and CFO concentrates financial and operational authority in one person during that transition. Her track record — 13 years guiding Nvidia's finances through its transformation from $4.13 billion to $215.9 billion in annual revenue — gives her credibility with investors. But the stock decline that preceded her appointment shows the market has not yet decided whether continuity in the CFO's office translates into stability in the CEO's.

What comes next is the open question: whether Kress keeps the job permanently, how Nvidia's roadmap in accelerated computing and AI proceeds under her, and whether the company can sustain its dominance without its founder. Her own statement points in one direction only — execution on the opportunities ahead.