Jensen Huang has resigned as Nvidia’s president, chief executive and a member of its board, effective immediately, the company said Thursday. In a Form 8-K filed Thursday, Nvidia said its board accepted the resignation on Nov. 11. The company named Colette Kress, its executive vice president and chief financial officer, as interim CEO.
Kress, 59, will continue as executive vice president and CFO while serving as interim CEO until a permanent successor is named, Nvidia said in a statement. The board is searching for a permanent CEO and will consider internal and external candidates, the company said. Kress joined Nvidia as CFO in September 2013, after finance roles at companies including Cisco and Microsoft.
The board also appointed Harvey C. Jones as its first-ever chair of the board, Nvidia said. The filing says Jones, 73, has served on the board since 1993 and has been managing partner of Square Wave Ventures, a private family office, since 2004. The company’s statement said his career included serving as CEO and executive chairman of Synopsys.
“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,” Jones said in the statement. Kress said she was “committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years.”
In a memo to employees, Kress wrote that “the Board, Estaff and I recognize that this has been an extraordinarily difficult period,” Reuters reported, adding that the company will host a meeting on Nov. 18.
Reuters reported that Huang stepped down after revelations of extramarital affairs, including one involving a suspected Chinese spy. The Associated Press said Huang faced growing calls to step down after The New York Times reported on his relationship with a woman alleged to be a Chinese spy, and that Nvidia did not directly address the affairs in Thursday’s announcement. China’s Foreign Ministry has dismissed the spying allegations, the AP said. Reuters said the company has not commented beyond its statement announcing the resignation.
Earlier this month, Nvidia’s board launched a probe, led by independent directors with outside legal counsel, into whether Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation, Reuters reported. AI Tech Daily has covered the board’s announcement of that inquiry and its retention of outside counsel.