Nvidia Names CFO Colette Kress Interim CEO After Huang Resigns

Nvidia's board has named longtime chief financial officer Colette Kress as interim CEO after cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang resigned, according to WIRED. The move places a finance executive rather than an engineer at the head of the company that has become a central supplier of computing power for the AI boom, and it comes as Nvidia faces intense public and regulatory scrutiny.

Who is Colette Kress, Nvidia's new interim CEO?

Kress joined Nvidia in 2013 and had served as its chief financial officer, according to WIRED. Prior to Nvidia, she held finance roles for more than two decades at Microsoft, Cisco and Texas Instruments. WIRED reports, citing the Israeli business newspaper Globes, that Huang personally recruited her that year, when Nvidia was still best known for gaming graphics cards. In that meeting, Huang reportedly sketched his vision on a whiteboard, describing how the company could become a major supplier of computing infrastructure for artificial intelligence — the bet that has since come to define the industry.

At Nvidia, Kress has been the executive responsible for the company's relationship with Wall Street. On earnings calls she has typically walked analysts through financial performance, customer demand and supply constraints. "One of the things we don't focus on is the stock price. We focus on our investors and how we would like to innovate," she told Globes in 2023, according to WIRED. For years, Huang was Nvidia's public face while Kress managed the financial narrative that investors and analysts follow.

Why did Jensen Huang step down?

Huang's departure follows a scandal over an extramarital affair. According to WIRED, the board announced on Thursday that Kress would take over after Huang resigned. The resignation came amid reports that Huang had an affair with a Chinese businesswoman whom US officials believed to be an asset of China's Ministry of State Security.

WIRED reports that Nvidia's board said on Sunday it was opening an independent investigation into Huang's activities, following a report by The New York Times about the affair with a woman named Alice Huang, whom US officials suspected of being a Chinese spy. WIRED also reported that Huang had quietly hired a crisis communications firm the previous year to handle matters related to his personal life, and that by October the firm was being brought in on press inquiries involving him — around the same time The New York Times reported that US authorities were investigating whether a company linked to Alice Huang had helped Chinese firms evade US chip export controls. Our news desk covered the resignation itself in a separate report.

Why was Kress the obvious choice to succeed Huang?

Several technology executives and industry analysts who follow Nvidia closely viewed Kress as one of the most obvious candidates, according to WIRED, pointing to her long tenure, her credibility on Wall Street and across the industry, and her deep familiarity with Nvidia's business and finances.

Patrick Moorhead, founder and chief analyst at Moor Insights & Strategies, told WIRED that Kress was "the logical choice." "She has credibility with investors because she answers hard questions directly," he said. Moorhead added that Kress has operated as more than a "numbers" CFO, saying she goes deep on the product roadmap, "from rack-scale systems to networking and software."

Nvidia's corporate structure also narrowed the field. According to WIRED, dozens of executives have long reported directly to Huang, the company has no traditional chief operating officer, and even executive vice presidents are not necessarily given direct control over budgets. As a result, WIRED reports, few people inside Nvidia understand the company's financials as well as Kress does.

Who else was in the running?

Kress was not the only internal name discussed. According to WIRED, other potential successors included Ian Buck, a Nvidia veteran of more than 20 years who created the CUDA software platform and now runs the company's high-performance computing business, and Jeff Fisher, who joined in 1994 as head of software sales and rose to senior vice president of the GeForce unit, where he led the strategy for taking GPUs to market.

What does Kress's leadership style mean for Nvidia?

Kress's background is financial rather than technical. A former Nvidia executive, speaking to WIRED on condition of anonymity, described her as "extremely strong-willed, professional, and whip smart" and said she "can step into the [CEO] role immediately without needing any guidance." The same person noted that she does not have the engineering and technical expertise Huang brought as a founding CEO, and that she has shied away from being at the center of public attention.

Newly appointed board chair Harvey Jones said in a statement that Kress "has helped lead Nvidia through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position," and that the board has "full confidence" in her, according to WIRED. Given the scrutiny surrounding Huang, WIRED suggests her lower-profile approach could be a welcome temporary change for the company.

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Frequently asked questions

Who did Nvidia appoint as interim CEO after Jensen Huang?

Nvidia's board named Colette Kress, the company's longtime chief financial officer, as interim CEO. According to WIRED, Kress joined Nvidia in 2013 and had managed the company's relationship with Wall Street. Her appointment followed the resignation of cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang, and the board said it has full confidence in her.

Why did Jensen Huang resign as Nvidia's CEO?

Huang resigned amid a scandal over an extramarital affair. According to WIRED, the affair was with a Chinese businesswoman whom US officials believed to be an asset of China's Ministry of State Security. Nvidia's board said it was launching an independent investigation into his activities, and WIRED reported that Huang had hired a crisis communications firm to handle matters related to his personal life.

Was Colette Kress the only candidate considered to succeed Huang?

No. According to WIRED, other potential successors included Ian Buck, a more than 20-year Nvidia veteran who created the CUDA software platform and now oversees the high-performance computing business, and Jeff Fisher, who joined in 1994 and later led the GeForce unit's strategy for bringing GPUs to market. Kress was still seen by analysts as the most obvious choice.

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Source: WIRED — AI — Meet Colette Kress, Nvidia’s New Interim CEO