NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has stepped down from the company and left its board, effective immediately, the chipmaker’s directors announced Thursday. Colette Kress, the company’s chief financial officer, will serve as interim CEO.
Kress will keep her roles as executive vice president and CFO while serving as interim CEO until a permanent replacement is named, NVIDIA said. The board has begun a search for a new chief executive and will weigh both internal and outside candidates.
NVIDIA also created a chair position for the first time, naming Harvey Jones, the former CEO and executive chairman of chip-design software maker Synopsys, to fill it. In a statement, Jones said Kress has helped guide NVIDIA through a stretch of remarkable growth and knows its business, customers, operations and finances well. He said she has a seasoned leadership team behind her, and that the board backs both and expects operations, customer commitments, and the product roadmap to carry on without a break.
Huang’s exit follows by just a few days the board’s announcement that it would investigate him, after he acknowledged an affair with a former tech executive who has been accused of working as a Chinese intelligence asset. At the time, the board said it saw no reason to believe national security or NVIDIA’s secrets had been compromised. President Donald Trump said the FBI is also looking into the matter.
A follow-up report from The New York Times adds a workplace dimension. It says Huang also had an affair with an NVIDIA executive in his own reporting line, and that the two were seen being affectionate at a hotel during a company conference this year. The Times also reports that Huang’s security detail offered an NDA to a bystander who had reportedly recorded the encounter.
Huang’s fall is a shocking development for NVIDIA, a company that has become central to the AI industry. He has led it as CEO since helping found it in 1993, and under him it grew from a 3D graphics maker into an AI giant valued at more than $4 trillion.
As NVIDIA’s stock soared in recent years, Huang became one of the most visible figures of the AI boom. He regularly appeared at events alongside tech CEOs such as Mark Zuckerberg and Satya Nadella, typically in his trademark black leather jacket. While prominent AI researchers have warned about superintelligence, Huang took a far more optimistic view of the technology. He opposed tighter regulation of the industry and has said the US should not limit China’s access to American-made chips.
Huang has often appeared alongside President Trump, and he was among the tech leaders who traveled with him on a recent trip to China. Asked about the latest revelations, Trump said he considered Huang “an honorable guy” who “probably has an excuse for it.”
Huang tried to steady the company in an internal memo earlier this week. He apologized, described leading NVIDIA as “the privilege of my life,” and pledged to protect the company and support “America’s national security.” He said he would “work to earn back your confidence.” That effort ends here, as Huang is now out as CEO.
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