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What happened when Nvidia's CEO resigned?
Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia's president, chief executive and board member, the company announced on 12 November 2026. Its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission says the board accepted the resignation on 11 November, effective immediately. Chief financial officer Colette Kress is interim CEO, and Harvey Jones is the first board chair.
Nvidia's press release, dated 12 November 2026, says the board has started a search for a permanent chief executive and will consider internal and external candidates. It gives no timeline. Neither the release nor the 8-K gives a reason for the resignation.
Who is running Nvidia now?
The 8-K says the board appointed Colette M. Kress, 59, as interim chief executive after Huang's resignation. She has been executive vice president and CFO since 2013 and keeps that role while she serves as interim CEO.
Harvey C. Jones, 73, was appointed chair of the board on 11 November. According to the filing, he has served on the board since 1993 and has been managing partner of the private family office Square Wave Ventures since 2004. Nvidia's release adds that he previously served as CEO and executive chairman of Synopsys. The silicon.co.uk report describes him as Nvidia's first-ever board chair.
In the release, Jones is quoted as saying the board has full confidence in Kress and the leadership team and expects operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap to continue without interruption. Kress said the company will keep advancing the work that made it a leader in accelerated computing and AI.
| Item | What the filing and release say |
|---|---|
| Resignation | Accepted by the board on 11 November 2026, effective immediately |
| Announced | 12 November 2026 |
| Interim CEO | Colette Kress, who remains CFO |
| Board chair | Harvey C. Jones, the first person to hold the role |
| Permanent CEO | Search under way, internal and external candidates |
Why did Jensen Huang resign?
Nvidia has not said. The company's announcement and its SEC filing both omit a reason, so any explanation comes from outside reporting rather than the company's own account.
What the reporting does establish is the sequence of events in the days before. On Sunday 8 November 2026, Fortune reported that Huang acknowledged an affair, following media reports about his relationship with a woman whom US authorities were reported to believe was a Chinese intelligence asset. Fortune attributed that to the New York Times. The same piece says Nvidia's board opened an inquiry into reports that Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence effort, and that the board said it had "no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised."
A later Fortune report on the resignation describes it as an ouster that followed those events, but it does not quote Nvidia giving a reason. CNBC's live coverage cites a source saying the board made its decision overnight, and says the board had hired the law firm Wachtell Lipton to investigate.
Our analysis: the timing invites a connection between the inquiry and the departure, but neither Nvidia nor the filing states one, so this article does not treat the cause as established. We have left out other personal claims in circulation because we could not confirm them from the sources we opened.
How did the markets react?
According to CNBC, Nvidia shares fell more than 13% at the open on 12 November, taking the market value below $4 trillion, before paring losses to close down 4.3%. The same coverage says the stock had closed at $173.73 on Wednesday 11 November, against a closing high of $239.24 on 6 October. Silicon.co.uk likewise reported an early plunge that was largely recovered.
That adds to a bruising few weeks. Nvidia was at the centre of the AI chip sell-off that gave the Nasdaq its worst day since 2025 earlier this month. Analyst commentary quoted by CNBC ranged from cautious to constructive, with some firms cutting price targets and one fund manager calling the exit a possible "clearing event". This is reporting on others' views, not a recommendation about the shares.
What are the governance questions?
Huang had been CEO for 33 years. Fortune's 9 November piece noted that he held a 3.56% stake without super-voting shares, that Nvidia had no chief operating officer, and that he had about 60 direct reports. It also quoted a Georgetown professor saying the board had made a mistake by not having a clearly outlined succession plan, and cited experts naming lead independent director Stephen Neal and Kress as possible interim options.
Our analysis: the new board chair role is itself a change. A separate chair gives the board an independent voice during the search, and how long that search takes will shape how customers and partners read the company's stability. One analyst cited by CNBC, Dan Ives, expects the interim period to last about a year; that is his estimate, not Nvidia's.
What happens next?
Nvidia said it will still report its fiscal third-quarter 2027 results on Tuesday 17 November 2026, as previously scheduled, with the call at 2pm Pacific time. Kress, as both interim CEO and CFO, will be the executive investors and customers hear from.
Elsewhere in the AI supply chain, deals continue. See our coverage of TSMC's board approving up to $1bn in stakes in Anthropic and OpenAI and Marvell's $115bn all-stock bid for Lumentum. We will update this story when Nvidia names a permanent chief executive.
Sources
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Colette Kress, Nvidia's executive vice president and chief financial officer since 2013, is interim CEO. She remains CFO while serving in the interim role until a permanent successor is named.
Harvey C. Jones, a board member since 1993 and a former CEO and executive chairman of Synopsys, was appointed on 11 November 2026. Nvidia's release calls him the company's first-ever chair of the board.
Nvidia's announcement and SEC filing do not give a reason. Media reports describe the resignation as following Huang's admission of an affair and a board inquiry, but the company has not linked them.
The SEC filing says the board accepted the resignation on 11 November 2026, effective immediately. Nvidia announced it publicly on 12 November 2026.
Yes. Nvidia's release says it will report fiscal third-quarter 2027 results on Tuesday 17 November 2026 as previously scheduled, with a conference call at 2pm Pacific time.
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