Nvidia announces leadership transition; Kress named interim CEO
Nvidia says Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive officer and a member of its board, effective immediately. In an announcement dated November 12, 2026, the company said executive vice president and chief financial officer Colette Kress would serve as interim chief executive while the board searches for a permanent successor.
Interim leadership and a permanent search
Kress will retain her executive vice president and chief financial officer responsibilities while serving as interim CEO, according to the announcement. Nvidia says the search will consider both internal and external candidates. Her appointment is interim, not confirmation that the permanent succession process has ended.
The company says Kress has led its finance organization since joining Nvidia in September 2013. Its announcement also describes earlier finance experience at Cisco and Microsoft. The board expressed confidence in the existing leadership team and said it expected operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap to continue without interruption. That is the board's stated expectation, not an independently verified guarantee of every future business outcome.
First board chair appointed
Nvidia also announced Harvey C. Jones as its first-ever chair of the board. It described him as a technology executive and investor with more than three decades of experience, including leadership roles at Synopsys. Kress said the team would build on the foundation Huang created and continue serving customers, partners, developers and shareholders.
The announcement did not state a reason for Huang's resignation. It should not be read as confirming unverified allegations or a completed independent investigation. The departure covers the president, CEO and board-member positions named in the release; the release does not establish a sale of his shareholding or the outcome of the permanent CEO search.
Nvidia said its fiscal 2027 third-quarter results remained scheduled for November 17 at approximately 1:20pm Pacific Time, followed by an earnings call at 2pm Pacific Time. Those are company-announced plans, not results already released. This report is based on the full Nvidia newsroom announcement. The photograph is a general empty-conference-room illustration, not Nvidia's boardroom or the meeting at which the decisions were made.
Update November 13: separately reported background and unresolved allegations
Published reporting indicated on November12 that the crisis followed reports of extramarital relationships. Its report identifies Alice Huang as a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed and says US intelligence officials suspected she acted for Chinese intelligence. The published report also records Beijing’s denial and Attorney General Todd Blanche’s statement that the Justice Department had not reached a conclusion about whether she was a spy. Those qualifications matter: suspicion is not a finding of espionage.
The published report attributes to published reporting the report of a relationship involving Nvidia healthcare vice president Kimberly Powell, who reported to Huang. It also describes reported Washington scrutiny of whether Megaspeed helped China obtain restricted chips, and a request by Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott for Huang and Howard Lutnick to testify the following month. None of this establishes a criminal conviction, a completed congressional appearance or a finding that a particular chip transfer was illegal. The company’s resignation announcement states no reason. This analysis does not independently verify the private relationships or intelligence allegations.
The same published report says Nvidia had begun an independent-director probe with outside legal counsel. An investigation is not a finding of wrongdoing. The resignation itself is confirmed by Nvidia; the company announcement does not state a reason. Exact weekly market-value losses, intraday lows, claims about specific FBI actions, analyst downgrades and a completed congressional summons are not asserted in this update without separately established evidence.
Read our separate analysis: Nvidia leadership, CUDA and the future of AI
Further update November 13: broker calls and a proposed lawsuit
Published reporting indicated on November11 that Morgan Stanley removed Nvidia from its Top Pick list but kept its overweight rating, while BofA Global Research removed it from the US1 List. Baird separately downgraded the stock to neutral, citing spending visibility, demand and leadership uncertainty. These are different actions: removal from a preferred list is not automatically a sell recommendation, and one firm’s downgrade does not mean every analyst reached the same view. This dated reporting was verified after the earlier update.
A the published report timeline published by published reporting says Nvidia and Huang were sued on November9 in a proposed shareholder class action alleging investors were misled about his ties involving Megaspeed. A November12 shareholder-law-firm release also describes allegations about disclosures and expressly says the class has not been certified. The release is an interested party’s account, not an independent court finding. A filed complaint or proposed class does not establish securities fraud, liability, damages or a successful recovery. This update does not independently verify a court docket or claim a certified class.
The official transition announcement supports the first-ever board-chair appointment, the internal-and-external CEO search and the scheduled November17 fiscal2027 third-quarter results. It expresses confidence in the product roadmap; it is not proof that every Blackwell or Rubin delivery date, customer order or demand forecast is unchanged. Congressional testimony remains described here as a request rather than a completed appearance or a confirmed hearing schedule. No independently reconciled 13% intraday, 30% monthly or 7% S&P500-weight figure is asserted.
Update, November 13 at 4:36pm Sydney: Trump's suggestion and a further published report
Donald Trump has publicly suggested former Apple CEO and current executive chairman Tim Cook as a possible permanent replacement for Jensen Huang. Published reporting and published report that Trump promoted Cook in a Truth Social post; published reporting also reports his comments in a Stephen A. Smith podcast calling Cook a great candidate. This is Trump's recommendation, not an Nvidia board appointment, a confirmed shortlist, an offer to Cook or evidence that Cook has agreed to take the job. Nvidia's November12announcement still describes Colette Kress as interim CEO, continuing as CFO and executive vice president, while the board considers internal and external candidates.
A separate November12published reporting report, read in its Euronext republication, says two people familiar with the matter alleged that Huang had an intimate relationship with another Nvidia employee, in addition to the previously reported relationship involving Kimberly Powell. The published report did not name the additional employee and said attempts to contact her were unsuccessful. It reported that Nvidia declined comment and that Huang, Powell and a representative for Nvidia's board did not respond to requests for comment. published reporting describes this as a report of a third affair overall. This article presents it as the published report' sourced allegation, not as an independently proven finding, and does not try to identify the unnamed employee.
The additional relationship report is not evidence that the unnamed employee was involved in espionage. The earlier Alice Huang intelligence allegation remains separate: Beijing has denied it, and the previously reported US Justice Department position did not establish that she was a spy. No criminal finding or conclusion that Nvidia secrets were transferred is asserted here. The company's transition announcement does not state a resignation reason. The resignation was announced on November12, not as a new departure on November13.
November 13, 7:13pm Sydney update: testimony requests and synthetic clips
Nvidia's November 12 announcement confirms Huang's resignation and Kress's interim appointment, but it gives no reason for the departure. A later report or online parody should not be substituted for a verified account of the board's private deliberations. The resignation is an already announced November 12 event, not a second new resignation today.
The published report, reporting with published reporting, says Senate Banking Committee chairman Tim Scott has requested testimony from Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. It attributes proposed December 3 and December 10 appearances respectively to published reporting's reporting, and says Scott warned that a subpoena could be considered if Huang did not appear voluntarily. A request and a warning of possible compulsory action are not proof that a hearing has taken place, that a subpoena has already been issued, or that Huang has publicly promised to reveal everything. That personal promise was not established in the sources checked for this update.
Published reports describes AI-generated parodies showing Huang in a Coldplay kiss-camera scenario and singing Careless Whisper. These are synthetic entertainment clips, not authentic recordings of his actions or Nvidia board meetings. Their circulation does not establish misconduct, espionage, a board vote or a promise to testify. This report does not reproduce the manipulated clips.