Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns as Colette Kress is named interim chief

Huang leaves Nvidia leadership

Nvidia announced on Thursday that Jensen Huang had resigned as president and chief executive. The company said its board accepted his resignation on Wednesday. The announcement followed a few days after Huang acknowledged a romantic affair with someone described in the article as an alleged Chinese spy. The report says the disclosure sparked a U.S. national security crisis.

Kress takes interim role

Nvidia’s current CFO and executive vice president, Colette Kress, will become interim CEO until a permanent successor is chosen. She will continue in her CFO position. Nvidia shares fell more than 11% in premarket trading on Thursday. Since Friday, the stock has dropped sharply, and the company’s market capitalization has declined by more than $300 billion, according to the article.

Questions over AI investments

Huang’s departure could affect the AI and data center industries, given Nvidia’s role in the AI boom. The company’s investments have supported startups and the construction of large data centers.

Under Huang, Nvidia used its financial resources to support companies purchasing its chips and advocated in Washington for looser potential rules on AI and data center regulation. The article says these activities helped finance demand for Nvidia products.

Commitments and board changes

At the end of its second quarter, Nvidia reported $99 billion in investments and another $25 billion in commitments. The article also says the company has $36 billion in cloud service commitments tied to operators financing GPUs and data center equipment.

Nvidia appointed Harvey Jones, a managing partner at Square Wave Ventures and former Synopsys CEO, as its first board chair. Jones has served on Nvidia’s board since 1993. In a statement, Nvidia’s board called the company one of the world’s most consequential technology companies and thanked Huang for his contributions to the company and industry.