Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia's CEO, and CFO Colette Kress takes over for now

Four days after the board said it had confidence in him, it announced he was gone, and gave no reason.

By Think Facility · November 12, 2026 · Nvidia AI policy

Part of a running story: Nvidia huang megaspeed briefing (3 parts)

On November 12, 2026, Nvidia's board announced that Jensen Huang has resigned as the company's president and chief executive, and from the board too, effective immediately. Colette Kress, the chief financial officer, is interim CEO while the board looks for a permanent one.

The release gives no reason for his exit. It doesn't mention the board's own investigation, the reports about Huang that started it, or Congress.

Announced: November 12, 2026
Leaving: Jensen Huang, as President, CEO and board member
Interim CEO: Colette Kress, who also stays CFO
New post: Harvey C. Jones, first-ever Chair of the Board
Search: internal and external candidates
Next: third-quarter results on Tuesday, November 17

Who's running Nvidia now

Kress keeps both jobs until a successor is named. She joined Nvidia as CFO in September 2013, after nearly 25 years in finance at companies that include Cisco and Microsoft.

A man in glasses and a white short-sleeved polo shirt, with a small microphone clipped to his collar, stands on a dark stage holding a presentation clicker — Jensen Huang on stage at Computex in Taipei, May 31, 2010. Photo: Masaru Kamikura, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The board also created a job it never had. Harvey C. Jones becomes its first-ever chair. The release describes him as an entrepreneur and venture investor for over 30 years, who was once CEO and then executive chairman of Synopsys.

Jones's statement is written for customers and investors. He says Kress has a deep understanding of the business and has an experienced team behind her, and then this.

The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team, and we expect the company’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption.

From NVIDIA Corporation

Kress's own statement credits the foundation Huang built "over the last 33 years" and says the focus stays on customers, partners, developers and shareholders. The board thanks him for what it calls his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry, in three sentences near the end.

Four days of board statements

On November 8, the board said a committee of independent directors would investigate after reports that Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. That statement ended by saying the board had confidence in Huang and his leadership team.

Two days later, on November 10, the independent directors said they'd hired Joon H. Kim, a former acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and his firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to run that investigation. Today's release doesn't say whether it goes on now that Huang has left, or whether anything it found played a part.

Musk's offer, the night before

On the evening of November 11, before Nvidia said anything, the account zerohedge asked Elon Musk on X to hire Huang. Musk answered two hours later.

Elon Musk@elonmusk · xAINov 11, 8:22 pm ET

That would be an honor

View the post on X

He didn't say what job he had in mind. Nothing in the saved posts says Huang has replied.

Why it matters outside Nvidia

Nvidia's chips sit inside a US policy fight. On January 13, 2026, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security said it would review licenses to export the H200 and similar chips to China case by case, as long as security requirements are met. The company that sells those chips is now run by an interim CEO, and the man Kress credits with 33 years of building it is out.

Congress hasn't dropped its questions either. On November 5, three House chairmen asked Huang for a closed-door briefing on November 18 about his ties to Alice Huang, whom their release calls a Chinese intelligence asset. They gave him until November 11 to accept or offer another date. Their release came before he quit, so it doesn't say whether the request still stands for a man who no longer runs the company.

It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which U.S. national security has been placed at risk.

From Moolenaar, Mast, and Crawford Seek Briefing from Jensen Huang on Ties to Chinese Intelligence Asset | Select Committee on the CCP

For Nvidia's shareholders, the next fixed date is close. Nvidia reports its third-quarter results on Tuesday, November 17, at about 1:20 p.m. Pacific, with the earnings call at 2 p.m. It'll be Kress's first as the company's interim chief executive.