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Nvidia Names Colette Kress Interim CEO After Huang's Resignation
· Confirmed
In Short: Nvidia has appointed Colette Kress as interim CEO following Jensen Huang's sudden resignation, amid a scandal involving a suspected Chinese spy.
Who Is NVIDIA’s New Interim CEO, Colette Kress?. Inside Edition
Nvidia has named Colette Kress as its interim CEO following the sudden resignation of Jensen Huang, who co-founded the company in 1993. Kress, who has been Nvidia's chief financial officer since 2013, will take the helm on an interim basis as the company searches for a permanent successor.
Kress, a 59-year-old industry veteran with over three decades of experience, has held high positions at tech firms like Cisco and Microsoft before joining Nvidia. She will retain her CFO responsibilities alongside her new role as interim CEO.
Huang's resignation came after a scandal broke over his involvement with a woman suspected of being a spy for China, who may have illegally diverted at least $7.5 billion in Nvidia hardware to Chinese businesses, according to media outlets. The incident has intensified scrutiny over Nvidia's dealings with China.
In a statement, Kress said, 'NVIDIA's strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years.'
Kress's appointment puts one of the company's longest-serving executives in charge at a moment of considerable uncertainty. She will have to contend with potential federal and congressional investigations into Nvidia's dealings involving China, leaving her to 'clean up that mess,' according to Gary Marcus, a cognitive scientist and longtime AI researcher.
Kress and her team had previously pushed back on other deals that Huang and the company’s sales team were working on, including a proposed $250 billion plan to support an OpenAI data center project in Ohio. This tension highlights the complex investment strategy Nvidia has been pursuing.
As of Wednesday, Kress's Nvidia shares were valued at roughly $750 million after a stock decline in the wake of the leadership shakeup. The company's board of directors announced the leadership change on November 12, with Kress stepping into the role of interim CEO while continuing her financial duties.
The board has full confidence in Kress and the leadership team, according to Jones, a board member. The company expects operations, customer commitments, and product development to continue without interruption under Kress and the existing management team.
What this adds
Nvidia is entering a new chapter in its leadership history, with questions surrounding Huang's departure, the company's increasingly complex investment strategy, and the sustainability of the AI boom. Potential candidates for the permanent CEO role include Chris Malachowsky, one of Nvidia's co-founders, and Rene Haas, the CEO of Arm Holdings.
Background
Nvidia has appointed Colette Kress as interim CEO following Jensen Huang's sudden resignation.
What's confirmed
- Colette Kress is chief financial officer at Nvidia Colette Kress has been an industry veteran for more than 30 years, having previously held high positions at tech firms like Cisco and Microsoft.
- Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress, a 13-year company veteran, is taking the helm of the world's most valuable chipmaker on an interim basis after Jensen Huang's sudden resignation.
- "NVIDIA's strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years," Kress said in Thursday's statement.
- Before joining Silicon Valley-based Nvidia in 2013, Kress was senior vice president and CFO of the business technology and operations finance unit at Cisco.
- The Santa Clara-based company said that Colette Kress — who has been Nvidia’s chief financial officer and executive vice president since 2013 — will step into the role of interim CEO.
- Nvidia’s interim CEO Colette Kress had a volatile relationship with ousted CEO Jensen Huang -– including a tense meeting this summer where Huang called her a “deer in the headlights,” according to a report.
- — NVIDIA has announced the immediate resignation of Jensen Huang as President and Chief Executive Officer, with Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress appointed as interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent successor.
- Colette Kress, the company’s chief financial officer, will run Nvidia as interim CEO and keep her finance duties until directors choose a permanent replacement, according to a company filing.
- The chip maker says its longtime chief financial officer, Colette Kress, will serve as interim CEO while Nvidia’s board of directors searches for a permanent replacement.
- The leadership change was announced by NVIDIA’s Board of Directors on 12 November.
- “The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team,” Jones said.
- The chipmaker’s board of directors announced that Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress has been appointed interim CEO while continuing her financial duties.
What's still developing
- When I first interviewed Kress in 2022, we discussed her previous roles at Cisco, Microsoft, and Texas Instruments, as well as how Nvidia attracted and retained employees.
- In 2010, Kress joined Cisco, where she spent three years as senior vice president and chief financial officer of its Business Technology and Operations Finance organization.
- But who is Kress, and what does her appointment tell us about Nvidia’s next phase?
- “I don’t know if that’s been determined yet,” he said in an interview.
- Kress joined NVIDIA in September 2013 and has led its finance organisation throughout her tenure.
- Kress said she would focus on continuing the work established under Huang’s leadership and advancing NVIDIA’s position in accelerated computing and artificial intelligence.
- Kress, who also serves as Nvidia's executive vice-president, has seen the firm's transformation from making chips for video games in the early 1990s to becoming an AI semiconductor powerhouse.
- Chris Malachowsky is one of Nvidia's three co-founders Another option is Chris Malachowsky, who founded Nvidia alongside Huang and Curtis Priem, and is the only executive that shares the same level of seniority.
- Nvidia is likely to favour an internal appointment initially but could look externally for a more permanent replacement, said Jun Bei Liu, founder and lead portfolio manager at Ten Cap.
- Rene Haas is the boss of Arm Holdings Haas is familiar with leading a publicly-listed company and would bring semiconductor experience, though Nvidia's business model is considerably different from Arm's, said Chanana.
- Ray Wang, chief executive of Constellation Research, said the crisis isn't so much an issue for the wider AI industry but rather one for Nvidia itself which has to consider if the person it appoints as its chief executive has the same appeal as Huang.
- Ian Buck, who oversees Nvidia's high-performance computing business, has also emerged as a potential candidate if the company is keen to put an engineer in the top job.