Nvidia now has a chief executive other than Jensen Huang for the first time in 33 years, and the new one reports quarterly results on Tuesday. Huang resigned Thursday as president, CEO and board member, effective immediately, four days after the board opened an independent investigation tied to reports that a foreign intelligence effort had targeted him. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress runs the company on an interim basis, and the financing commitments she has explained to investors since August will now draw the closest scrutiny.
What the board announced
Nvidia’s announcement names three changes. Kress, who has served as CFO since joining Nvidia in September 2013 and spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at technology companies including Cisco and Microsoft, keeps her finance role while she serves as interim CEO. Harvey C. Jones, a director since 1993 and a former CEO of Synopsys, becomes the first Chair of the Board in the company’s history. The board has started a search for a permanent CEO and will consider internal and external candidates.
The release gives no reason for Huang’s exit and does not mention the independent investigation the board announced on November 8. The board opened that investigation after reporting that a foreign intelligence effort had targeted Huang, and he told employees in a letter the same day that he had been unfaithful to his wife. On November 11, The New York Times reported a second relationship, with a senior Nvidia executive who reports directly to him, a report that Nvidia and Huang had not confirmed as of Thursday. The Wall Street Journal reported the same day that the board was preparing to remove him, and Nvidia’s filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission lists November 11 as the date the board accepted his resignation.
A market already under strain
Nvidia entered the week weakened by a November 5 sell-off in AI stocks that gave the S&P 500 its worst day since April 2025, according to AP. Nvidia closed Wednesday at $173.73, then fell more than 8% in after-hours trading after the Wall Street Journal reported that the board was preparing to remove Huang. Yahoo Finance data showed the stock at $154.68 before Thursday’s open, about 11% below that close. Shares fell as much as 14% during the session, briefly erasing about $600 billion in market value, CNN reported, before closing down 4.3% at $166.19. NBC News reported that Nvidia’s market value dipped below $4 trillion for the first time since 2025 in early trading and ended the day barely above that line, after losing about $500 billion this week.
The recovery from the low suggests some investors treat the leadership change as a manageable event rather than a verdict on demand, and CNN reported heavy retail buying on Thursday morning. Analysts moved the other way. CNBC counted at least six downgrades between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, and Dan Ives of Yorkville valued Nvidia at $225 a share without Huang, against $300 with him.
The financing commitments Kress inherits
Kress takes over a company whose obligations are growing faster than its sales. Supply and capacity commitments more than doubled in the quarter ended July 26, from $119 billion to $279 billion, mostly for memory, according to Nvidia’s CFO commentary. In August, Nvidia also agreed to guarantees capped at $105 billion that back data center leases for OpenAI at an Ohio campus. Revenue for the same quarter rose 18% from the prior quarter to $96.2 billion, and Nvidia guided to $108 billion, plus or minus 2%, for the current one.
Kress has defended these arrangements in public. According to coverage of the August call, she acknowledged that critics call the support circular financing, and she said outside capital underwrites each deal and that Nvidia does not make loans. That history cuts both ways. She knows the commitments better than any outside candidate, and her continuity as CFO removes one execution risk from the handover. She also faces a test of credibility that a newly hired CEO would not: scaling back those commitments would reverse a strategy she has defended herself.
A new chair and no named successor
Until Thursday, Nvidia had no board chair. Its filings describe an independent lead director instead, a structure the board has said gives every member an equal voice. The board that created the Chair role must now run a CEO search while a congressional inquiry and Tuesday’s earnings call land within days. Semafor reported before the resignation that the board’s average tenure is nearly 15 years, about double the S&P 500 norm, and that three directors, Huang and Jones among them, have served since the 1993 founding.
No successor stood ready. Bloomberg reported in January that Nvidia lacked a clear heir, and the board’s announcement names no candidate. Huang has said he has about 50 direct reports, and Semafor reported that Nvidia has no chief operating officer, a structure that leaves no executive in line to inherit the role by default. President Donald Trump supplied a name on Truth Social, writing that only Tim Cook, Apple’s executive chairman, could take Huang’s place, and adding, “A Legend replaces a Legend!” The post suggests the White House expects a voice in the choice of a successor, which will make an independent search harder to demonstrate.
Public backing did not change the outcome. Trump said on November 8 that Huang should remain CEO, and Elon Musk endorsed a post the next day calling Huang irreplaceable. On Wednesday evening, hours before the announcement, Musk answered a post from the financial blog ZeroHedge urging him to hire Huang with “That would be an honor,” though he named no role and no offer has been reported. After the resignation, Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao called it a mistake for Nvidia to let Huang go. The board alone chooses the next CEO, and Huang owned less than 4% of Nvidia, according to its proxy statement, with no super-voting stock.
Washington stays in the frame
Huang’s resignation does not end the congressional inquiry. He agreed Wednesday to testify before the US Congress by Thanksgiving, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast said Thursday, after lawmakers threatened a subpoena. The session will run behind closed doors, and Mast expects it to be recorded and transcribed. Three Republican House chairs had asked for a briefing on Huang’s dealings with a former executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore company that buys Nvidia chips, and on Nvidia’s safeguards against foreign espionage.
Public evidence remains thin on the central question. Nvidia’s board said on November 8 that it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised. The Times reported that officials did not believe Huang knew the executive might be gathering information for China, and China’s foreign ministry has called the spy allegation unsubstantiated. No charges have been reported.
Export policy gives the story its commercial weight. Huang campaigned against tighter limits on chip sales to China, and the Trump administration approved H200 exports to China in December 2025 under conditions that include inspections and a 25% tariff, according to Al Jazeera. Nvidia’s guidance excludes any China data center compute revenue, so a reopening of that market would be upside, and a hearing about the former CEO’s contacts makes that upside harder to forecast.
What to watch on Tuesday
Nvidia reports at about 1:20 p.m. PT, with its call at 2 p.m. PT. Investors will look first for whether Kress reaffirms the $108 billion outlook and the commitments behind it. They will also listen for a timeline on the CEO search, since an interim arrangement without one invites speculation. A third signal is how management talks about China and export policy now that Huang, who lobbied Washington on those rules, no longer leads the company.
Jones said in the announcement that the board expects “operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption,” and Tuesday’s numbers will show whether demand agrees. The harder test comes later, when a permanent CEO must hold the financing commitments and the relationship with Washington together. A board that appointed its first chair only this week has to choose that person under political scrutiny.
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