Nvidia names CFO Kress interim CEO after Huang exit

Nvidia named its chief financial officer, Colette Kress, interim CEO on Thursday after co-founder Jensen Huang left the company, the first leadership change since the chipmaker was founded in 1993 2

. Kress keeps the finance job while the board looks for a permanent successor, from inside or outside the company 2

Source: ET

Huang's exit followed reports of two extramarital affairs. One was with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman whom US officials suspected of being a spy for China's Ministry of State Security; the other was with Nvidia employee Kimberly Powell 2

. The two are not related 2

A founder's exit

Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and ran it for 33 years with no clear second-in-command, personally setting project priorities and acting as the company's public face 1

. He is described as the central figure of the AI chip boom 3

The scandal unfolded fast. He apologized publicly on Sunday for being unfaithful to his wife. Pressure mounted late Wednesday, when the New York Times reported the affair with Powell, a vice president of health care 1

. The magazine also reported that Huang had quietly retained a crisis communications firm last year, which by October was handling press inquiries around the time US authorities probed whether a company linked to Alice Huang helped Chinese firms evade chip export controls 1

The board launched an independent investigation that Sunday. "While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the Board's inquiry will examine all available information," it said 5

Why the finance chief

The company's own structure pointed to its finance chief. Dozens of executives reported directly to Huang, and there was no traditional chief operating officer. Few insiders know the company's finances as well as Kress does, according to Wired's reporting 1

. She joined in September 2013 and has held the job for 13 years, during which revenue grew from about $4 billion to $216 billion 2

. Before Nvidia she spent about 25 years in tech finance at Texas Instruments, Microsoft and Cisco, becoming a division finance chief at Microsoft in 2006 2

Source: NYT

Analysts describe her as more than a bookkeeper. "She's more than just a CFO. I'd almost view her as more of a COO," said Dan Ives 3

. Patrick Moorhead called her the logical choice, saying her credibility with investors comes from answering hard questions directly 1

. The board cited her deep understanding of the business, customers, operations and financial position, and expressed full confidence in her and the wider leadership team 1

. Harvey Jones, named the company's first-ever board chairman, said he expects operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap to continue without interruption 1

The main known weakness comes from one anonymous former executive, who told Wired that Kress can step in immediately without guidance 1

. The same source says she lacks Huang's engineering and technical expertise and has shied from public attention.

The five-day test

Nvidia shares fell 14% on the announcement day, headed for a sixth straight weekly drop, the longest such run since 2012 3

. The network attributes the slump to broader concerns about the AI buildout after Democratic midterm wins, the worst stretch for the stock since 2012 3

. Kress has skin in the game: her Nvidia stake was worth roughly $750 million to $770 million this week depending on the source, after peaking above $1 billion last month 2

Source: Wired

Analysts expect the permanent replacement to come from outside the company, with Ives estimating Kress serves about a year in the interim role 3

. Nvidia reports quarterly results on Tuesday; in August it reported revenue of $96.2 billion, up 106% year over year 3

. Kress has been the company's main voice on earnings calls for over a decade; on Tuesday she gives that presentation as its interim chief executive.

Nvidia hands its CFO the top job after Huang's exit, and her first test is five days away

A founder's exit

Why the finance chief

The five-day test

References

Meet Colette Kress, Nvidia's New Interim CEO

Who is Nvidia interim CEO Colette Kress?

Who is Colette Kress? Nvidia's finance chief steps in as interim CEO after Huang exit

Who Is Colette Kress, the Interim Nvidia CEO Replacing Jensen Huang?

Colette Kress Helped Guide Nvidia's Rise for 13 Years. Now She Has 5 Days Before Her First Test

Related Stories

Jensen Huang is out at Nvidia after a week of affair reports and spy allegations

Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO after reports of two affairs, ending a 33-year run

Jensen Huang's Affair with Suspected Chinese Spy Exposes $7 Billion AI Chip Smuggling Network

Recent Highlights

Jensen Huang's Affair with Suspected Chinese Spy Exposes $7 Billion AI Chip Smuggling Network

Anthropic Launches Claude Meetings and AI-Powered Office Tools to Challenge Microsoft and Google

Anthropic launches Fable 5.2 and Mythos 5.2 with 20% price cut and 30% faster output

Recent Highlights

Today's Top Stories

OpenAI's AI Tackles Yang-Mills Problem, A Million-Dollar Physics Challenge

Google DeepMind Unveils AlphaGenome 2 to Decode DNA Variants and Accelerate Disease Research

Nvidia turmoil and new China chip curbs trigger AI stocks selloff, raising AI demand worries

ByteDance Launches AI Agent to Compete with Meta's Muse, Eyes OpenAI Rivalry by 2030