Jensen Huang steps down as Nvidia CEO amid widening corporate scandal

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Jensen Huang exits Nvidia

Highlights

Jensen Huang steps down as Nvidia CEO.
CFO Colette Kress becomes interim CEO.
Nvidia faces leadership and AI market risks.

Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress has been appointed interim CEO, according to Bloomberg. The leadership change comes after Nvidia's board began an independent investigation into allegations involving Huang and a former executive at a major customer. The company has not announced a permanent successor.

Personal allegations trigger leadership crisis

Huang, 63, had faced growing scrutiny since acknowledging an extramarital relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed International. U.S. authorities have investigated Megaspeed over suspected violations of export restrictions involving advanced Nvidia chips. Both companies have denied wrongdoing, while Huang has denied compromising national security or company information.

Separate reporting alleged that Huang also had a relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of healthcare. The disclosures intensified questions about internal oversight and the concentration of authority under Nvidia's longtime leader.

The board retained outside legal counsel to examine the intelligence-related allegations. Directors also began considering possible replacements, highlighting the difficulty of replacing an executive who had led Nvidia since its founding in 1993.

Colette Kress takes charge during transition

Kress joined Nvidia in 2013 after holding financial positions at Microsoft and Cisco. As chief financial officer, she has overseen the company's financial reporting and maintained relationships with investors, although Huang remained its most prominent public representative.

Nvidia's leadership structure presents an additional challenge. Huang personally directed much of the company's strategy and maintained unusually close oversight of operations, leaving investors uncertain about how responsibilities will be distributed under a new chief executive.

The company is also approaching its next earnings announcement, when management will face questions about demand for AI processors and the outlook for data center spending.

Departure raises questions across the AI industry

Under Huang, Nvidia became a dominant supplier of processors used to train and operate artificial intelligence systems. Its market capitalization surpassed $4 trillion as demand accelerated following the launch of ChatGPT in 2022.

Nvidia has also invested in AI developers and cloud infrastructure providers, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and CoreWeave. These relationships have made the company influential not only as a chip supplier but also as a source of financing across the industry.

Huang's resignation introduces uncertainty over the future of those arrangements and Nvidia's broader strategy. Investors will be watching whether Kress can maintain customer confidence while the board searches for a permanent leader.

Earlier, we reported that Nvidia shares slide as Wall Street reassesses risks of Huang departure.

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