Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Resigns Amid Board Probe and Congress Questions

On the evening of November 12, Beijing time, NVIDIA's newsroom posted a brief message on X with a one-page press release. The release began "Jensen Huang resigns." Further down, the resignations from CEO, president, and board member took effect immediately. Since co-founding NVIDIA in 1993, this is the first time he has handed over the CEO position to someone else. NVIDIA Newsroom announcement

Four days earlier, the same newsroom had published an apology letter from Huang to employees. The board that day announced an independent investigation while saying it still had confidence in him and the management team. The trail for this investigation began with a report in late October.

October 29 to November 5 | From media reports to congressional inquiry

On October 29, The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence agencies had concerns about Huang's communications with Alice Huang, who previously worked at Singapore-based compute company Megaspeed, a buyer of NVIDIA's advanced AI chips. The Associated Press later reported that the two had an extramarital relationship. As the reports gained traction, Congress began asking how NVIDIA protects sensitive technology and how U.S. chip export controls are enforced. AP report

On November 5, the chairs of three U.S. House committees publicly demanded that Huang attend a joint closed-door briefing by November 18 to explain his communications with Alice Huang and NVIDIA's measures to guard against foreign intelligence activities. They asked Huang to confirm attendance or propose an alternative date by November 11. House Foreign Affairs Committee announcement

November 8 to 11 | Board launches investigation, then discusses CEO's future

On November 8, Huang acknowledged the extramarital affair in a public letter to NVIDIA employees, apologized, and said he would cooperate with the investigation. The same day, NVIDIA announced a committee of independent directors to oversee the investigation, assisted by external counsel. The board then said it was confident in Huang and the management team to continue leading, and saw no reason to believe U.S. national security or company secrets had been compromised. Huang's letter to employees · Board statement on Nov 8

By November 11, congressional inquiries had extended to export-control enforcement. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons asked the federal government to preserve records related to NVIDIA chip exports. The same day, Reuters, citing sources, reported that NVIDIA's board would meet to discuss Huang's future. The company had 11 directors at the time, and the bylaws allowed the board to remove the CEO by majority vote. Before the news broke, X user @gemchange_ltd also discussed the votes needed for removal based on the board's composition. Senators' letter (PDF) · Reuters report

November 12 | Huang resigns, CFO takes over temporarily

NVIDIA announced that Huang resigned as president, CEO, and board member, effective immediately. He had served as CEO since co-founding NVIDIA in 1993, a 33-year tenure. The transition announcement did not explain the reason for the resignation, nor did it disclose the findings of the independent investigation or whether the board had voted on removing him.

The board appointed Executive Vice President and CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO, with her continuing in her CFO role. Kress joined NVIDIA in 2013; previously she was at Cisco leading business operations and technology finance, and also served as CFO of Microsoft's Server and Tools division. NVIDIA also appointed Harvey C. Jones, former CEO of Synopsys, as its first chairman, and began a search for a permanent CEO, considering internal and external candidates. Jones said the board expects the company's operations, customer commitments, and product roadmap to continue as usual.

After the transition announcement, AIHOT featured the official message with an AI score of 98 points. The platform's recommendation cited that the announcement specified the interim replacement, the selection process for a permanent CEO, and the next earnings schedule. The entry also aggregated reports from 5 other sources. AIHOT story

November 12, U.S. morning session | Stock falls, then trims losses

According to an AP intraday report, NVIDIA's stock fell as much as 9.7%. At 10:21 AM ET, The Kobeissi Letter noted the stock had returned above $163, recovering about half of its earlier loss. Its chart captured a quote during the rebound at $162.62, down 6.36%. AP intraday report

After the resignation announcement | Outside reactions to Huang's departure

Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire used the Mellanox acquisition to explain Huang's impact on AI infrastructure. NVIDIA completed that purchase in 2020 for $7 billion, gaining the high-speed networking technology that lets multiple GPUs work together. In Maguire's view, Huang's departure takes away a founder-CEO who understood engineering and was willing to take risks on next-generation technology. The Atlantic shared a discussion on X the same day, extending the question to the entire AI compute investment cycle. That episode was recorded before the resignation announcement. Maguire's X post

Some in the community openly opposed the transition. As relayed by Watcher.Guru, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) called forcing Huang out a "mistake." X user Serenity called the day "the end of an era for NVIDIA," citing a poll they had started on whether Huang should stay. At the time of verification, the ongoing poll had 20,198 votes, with 86.4% supporting him staying. Participants were voluntary X users; no independent data exist on NVIDIA employee sentiment as mentioned in the post. Watcher.Guru post · Original X poll

Brivael Le Pogam, in a video post, attributed the departure to pressure from public opinion, Washington, and the board, and speculated that similar pressure might reach Musk's companies. He then cited the 2023 OpenAI employee call to bring back Sam Altman, urging NVIDIA employees to strike to bring Huang back and asking the board to wait for the investigation's conclusion before appointing a permanent successor. This is Le Pogam's personal initiative. Strike initiative post

Two unanswered questions

The first: where will Huang go? Before the resignation announcement, Musk replied to a user who suggested he hire Huang, saying "that would be my honor." After the announcement, Sawyer Merritt speculated the two might collaborate on Terafab; a Kalshi prediction market screenshot showed that at the time of posting, "Huang joins SpaceX/xAI by 2026" had an implied probability of 38%. Another post with an image claimed he had already become an OpenAI technical staff member, and @oneruofeng quoted the NVIDIA announcement and replied to challenge that claim. As of this update, none of these destinations have been confirmed by the parties involved. Musk's reply · Kalshi original post

The second: who will permanently take over. Watcher.Guru relayed on X that Trump believes Tim Cook should become NVIDIA CEO. The claim lacks a primary record of Trump's comments, and NVIDIA has not published a list of candidates. Watcher.Guru post

November 17 | First earnings call after the leadership change

NVIDIA will still release its fiscal 2027 third-quarter results on November 17 at approximately 1:20 PM Pacific Time, with a conference call at 2 PM Pacific (6 AM Beijing time on November 18). In the prior quarter, NVIDIA reported revenue of $96.2 billion, with data center contributing $89 billion. The company's guidance for the third quarter was $108 billion, plus or minus 2%, and it excluded data center compute revenue from China. NVIDIA second-quarter results

At the last earnings call, NVIDIA said Vera Rubin was expanding production, with some racks already running at partners like CoreWeave, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. A Taiwanese supplier executive interviewed by Reuters is watching how quickly the new management locks in manufacturing capacity. For cloud providers, when Rubin ships in volume determines when they can offer next-generation compute to customers. That will be among the most concrete questions on the upcoming earnings call. Reuters supply chain report

Appendix | NVIDIA CEO transition announcement (Simplified Chinese translation)

Original English text can be found in NVIDIA's transition announcement. English announcement PDF

NVIDIA Announces CEO Transition

• Jensen Huang resigns
• EVP and CFO Colette Kress named interim CEO
• Harvey C. Jones named first chairman

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) today announced that Jensen Huang has resigned as President, CEO, and board member of the company, effective immediately.

NVIDIA's current EVP and CFO, Colette Kress, has agreed to serve as interim CEO. Until a permanent successor is named, Kress will continue as EVP and CFO while serving as interim CEO. The board has commenced a search for a permanent CEO, considering both internal and external candidates.

Kress has been NVIDIA's EVP and CFO since joining in September 2013. In that role, she has led the company's finance team and played a key role in NVIDIA's growth and transformation. Before joining NVIDIA, Kress worked in finance at leading technology companies including Cisco and Microsoft for nearly 25 years.

The board has appointed Harvey C. Jones as the company's first chairman. For more than 30 years, Jones has been active in entrepreneurship, technology executive leadership, and venture capital, and previously served as CEO and executive chairman of Synopsys.

NVIDIA Chairman Harvey Jones said:

Colette has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of significant growth and has deep knowledge of our business, customers, operations, and financials. She is supported by an experienced leadership team that has been instrumental in executing NVIDIA's strategy and advancing our technology roadmap. The board has confidence in Colette and the leadership team and expects operations to continue as normal, commitments to customers to be fulfilled, and the product roadmap to proceed as planned.

NVIDIA interim CEO and CFO Colette Kress said:

NVIDIA's strength has always come from its employees. Together with the leadership team, I will continue to build on the foundation Jensen has laid over the past 33 years. We will keep driving the work that has made NVIDIA a leader in accelerated computing and artificial intelligence and seize the opportunities ahead. Our focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers, and shareholders.

Jensen Huang's contributions to NVIDIA are far-reaching. NVIDIA is one of the most influential technology companies in the world. The board and the company thank Jensen for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry.

NVIDIA will release fiscal 2027 third-quarter financial results on Tuesday, November 17, at approximately 1:20 PM Pacific Time, followed by a conference call at 2 PM Pacific Time.

About NVIDIA

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• Toshiya Hari, NVIDIA Investor Relations, [email protected]
• Mylene Mangalindan, NVIDIA Corporate Communications, [email protected]