Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO; CFO Colette Kress takes over as interim chief

Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive and board member of Nvidia, effective immediately, the company's board announced on Thursday. Huang co-founded Nvidia and led it for 33 years.

Colette Kress, Nvidia's chief financial officer since 2013, will serve as interim CEO while staying on as CFO. The board will look at internal and external candidates for the permanent role. It also named Harvey C. Jones, a former CEO and executive chairman of Synopsys, as Nvidia's first-ever board chair.

"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," Jones said. Kress said she would build "on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years." The announcement gives no reason for the resignation and does not mention the investigation.

The exit follows a week of turmoil. On 8 November the board opened an independent investigation after reports that Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort, saying it had no reason to believe national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised. Huang admitted an affair with a former executive of Megaspeed, Nvidia's largest Southeast Asian customer, and the board was reported to be meeting this week on whether to remove him. Data Center Dynamics headlined the news as a resignation after "multiple affairs."

Nvidia will report third-quarter results on 17 November as scheduled.