Jensen Huang steps down as Nvidia CEO, board backs interim successor

Nvidia just went through a major leadership shift. After 33 years at the helm, co-founder Jensen Huang has stepped down as President, CEO, and board member, effective immediately.

The board has named Colette Kress, the company’s longtime Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, as Interim CEO. She’ll keep handling her CFO responsibilities while leading the company until a permanent replacement is chosen. The board has already started a search that will look at both internal and external candidates.

Kress joined Nvidia back in September 2013 and has guided the finance side through the company’s massive growth years. Before that she spent nearly 25 years in senior finance roles at places like Cisco and Microsoft. In her statement she said the focus will be on building on the foundation Huang put in place and keeping Nvidia moving forward in accelerated computing and AI.

In a related move, the board also appointed Harvey C. Jones as its first-ever Chair of the Board. Jones has more than 30 years of experience as a tech executive, entrepreneur, and investor, including time as CEO and Executive Chairman of Synopsys, and he’s been a longtime Nvidia director.

The board said it has full confidence in Kress and the current leadership team, and that it doesn’t expect any disruption to operations, customer commitments, or the product roadmap. Nvidia is still set to report its third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on November 17, followed by the usual earnings call.

This ends a long chapter under Huang’s leadership and marks a carefully planned handoff, with a familiar internal executive taking the interim role and a formal board chair position now in place.

(Source: Nvidia)