Nvidia’s board said Thursday that Jensen Huang has resigned as the company’s president, chief executive, and a director, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while remaining CFO, and longtime director Harvey C. Jones was appointed the company’s first-ever chair of the board.
The changes were announced in a company press release dated November 12, 2026, and in a Form 8-K filed the same day with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The 8-K says the board accepted Huang’s resignation on November 11 and identifies him as Jen-Hsun Huang. The filing does not say he will stay at Nvidia in any other role, and it does not disclose severance, equity treatment, or a new pay arrangement for Huang or for Kress.
The leadership shift lands five days before Nvidia reports results. The company said it will still release third-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Tuesday, November 17, at about 1:20 p.m. PT, followed by an earnings call at 2 p.m. PT, “as previously scheduled.” An October 28 announcement had already set that timetable and said the quarter ended October 25, 2026.
Kress, 59, has been executive vice president and chief financial officer since she joined Nvidia in September 2013, according to the press release and the 8-K. The board said she will continue in the CFO job “while serving as Interim Chief Executive Officer until a permanent successor has been named.” It is starting a search for a permanent CEO and “will consider internal and external candidates.”
Jones, 73, has been on Nvidia’s board since 1993, the 8-K says. He has been managing partner of Square Wave Ventures, a private family office, since 2004, and previously served as chief executive and executive chairman of Synopsys, according to the company.
“Colette has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position,” Jones said in the Thursday statement. “The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team, and we expect the company’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption.”
Kress said she was “committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years.” Huang founded Nvidia in 1993, according to his official company biography, which the newsroom has already updated to say he “previously served” as president, CEO, and a director. Kress signed the 8-K as “Interim Chief Executive Officer, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.”
Nvidia’s transition announcement did not give a reason for the resignation. The departure follows a series of official statements earlier in the week that the company did not explicitly tie to Thursday’s filing. On November 8, the board said it was initiating an independent investigation “in light of recent reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort.” Independent directors, assisted by outside counsel, would oversee the inquiry. The board said it “has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised,” and that Huang supported the review.
That same day, Nvidia published an email Huang sent to employees in which he wrote, “I was unfaithful to my wife,” apologized to his family and colleagues, and said he would cooperate with the investigation and remained “fully committed to NVIDIA.” On November 10, the independent directors said they had retained Joon H. Kim, former acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct the investigation announced that Sunday.
News organizations including The New York Times, the Financial Times, and CNN have reported additional allegations surrounding Huang’s personal life and the national-security claims. Those accounts are not findings, and Nvidia’s Thursday release and 8-K do not confirm them or present the investigation’s conclusions.
Investors reacted immediately. Nvidia shares “tumbled as much as 14% after the U.S. market opened” on Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported, before paring most of those losses. The stock closed down 4.3% at $166.19. Earlier Thursday, CNN reported that shares dropped more than 10% in premarket trading.
For shareholders, the governance change is as important as the names. Nvidia now has a board chair for the first time, its founder is off the board entirely, and the finance chief is holding both the CEO and CFO jobs while a search begins. The company offered no timeline for naming a permanent chief. That is the setup heading into next week’s earnings: a confirmed report date, an interim leader promising continuity, and no disclosed terms for how Huang’s exit was handled.