Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive and a member of the board of Nvidia, effective immediately, the company's board of directors announced today, ending a 33-year run at the head of the chipmaker he co-founded. Colette Kress, Nvidia's executive vice president and chief financial officer since 2013, will serve as interim chief executive while keeping the finance job, and the board has appointed Harvey C. Jones, the former chief executive and executive chairman of Synopsys, as its first-ever chair. A search for a permanent chief executive, open to internal and external candidates, has begun.

The announcement, published before US markets opened on Thursday, gives no reason for the departure. It came four days after the board opened an independent investigation into reporting that Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort, and less than a day after The New York Times reported a second extramarital relationship, this one with an Nvidia vice president who reported to him. Nvidia said it would still report results for the third quarter of fiscal 2027 on Tuesday, November 17, as previously scheduled.

In Short

Nvidia's founder Jensen Huang quit as chief executive and left the board today, and finance chief Colette Kress is now running the company on an interim basis while the board looks for a permanent replacement. The move follows a week in which the board opened an investigation into reports that Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence effort, Huang admitted being unfaithful to his wife, and The New York Times reported a second relationship with an executive who reported to him. Nvidia's chips sit underneath much of the AI that ad platforms, measurement tools and model makers run, so who leads the supplier matters well beyond its shareholders. Results due on November 17 will be the first test of the board's claim that operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap will continue without interruption.

What the board announced

The release, headed "NVIDIA Announces CEO Transition," opens with three summary lines: "Jensen Huang Resigns," "Colette Kress, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Appointed Interim CEO" and "Harvey C. Jones Appointed First-Ever Chair of the Board." Its first sentence states that Huang "has resigned as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board, effective immediately."

Kress, according to the release, "has agreed to serve as Interim Chief Executive Officer" and "will continue to serve as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer while serving as Interim Chief Executive Officer until a permanent successor has been named." The board "is initiating a search for a permanent Chief Executive Officer and will consider internal and external candidates." No timetable is given, and no search firm is named.

Jones, speaking as chair, set out the board's case for continuity. "Colette has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position," he said. "She is supported by an experienced leadership team that has been instrumental in executing NVIDIA's strategy and advancing its technology roadmap. 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's own statement looked backwards before it looked ahead. "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," she said. "We will continue advancing the work that has made NVIDIA a leader in accelerated GPU computing and AI, and execute on the opportunities ahead. Our focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders."

The release closes its account of the change with a tribute. "Jensen's contributions to NVIDIA are profound. NVIDIA is one of the most consequential technology companies in the world," it reads. "The Board and the company thank Jensen for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry."

What the release leaves out

The statement is notable for its omissions. It does not say why Huang resigned. It does not mention the independent investigation that the board announced on Sunday, November 8, or the law firm the independent directors hired two days later, and it says nothing about whether that inquiry continues or what it has found. There is no reference to severance, to Huang's equity, or to whether he keeps any role at the company, as an employee or an adviser. There is no quote from Huang. The only two people quoted are Jones and Kress.

The choice of verb is also worth noting. Nvidia's text says Huang "resigned." Bloomberg's headline today described him as removed by the board, and The Wall Street Journal had reported the evening before, citing people familiar with the matter, that the board was preparing to oust him, according to NBC News and Yahoo Finance. The release does not address that difference, and a resignation tendered at a board's request would be consistent with both accounts. Nothing published by Nvidia today settles which applies.

Nor does the release say what happens to the board's existing leadership post. Nvidia's 2026 proxy statement, dated May 12, 2026, lists Stephen C. Neal, chairman emeritus and senior counsel at the law firm Cooley, as the board's independent Lead Director. A chair now sits above that structure. Whether Neal keeps the lead director title is not stated.

Four days from confidence to departure

The speed of the change is clearest against the sequence that preceded it.

On October 29, The New York Times reported that US officials had concluded that Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed, was a Chinese intelligence asset and that she had developed a close relationship with Jensen Huang, according to excerpts quoted in a securities complaint that PPC Land covered on November 9. An Nvidia spokesman told the newspaper the interactions were not unusual. The next day, Huang told Bloomberg that Nvidia's dealings with Megaspeed were normal.

On Sunday, November 8, the board said it was opening an independent investigation, overseen by a committee of independent directors with outside counsel, into reporting that Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. It said it had no reason to believe that national security or Nvidia secrets had been compromised, and it expressed confidence in Huang and his leadership team. The same day, Nvidia's newsroom published a message from Huang to employees in which he acknowledged that he had been unfaithful to his wife, apologized to his family and to the company, and said he supported the investigation and would cooperate with it.

On Monday, November 9, Nvidia shares fell $7.97, or 4.27%, to $178.67, according to a complaint filed that day, and an investor sued Nvidia and Huang over statements about Megaspeed in federal court in California. President Trump said that day that the FBI was looking into the relationship, while describing Huang as honorable, according to Yahoo Finance.

On Tuesday, November 10, the independent members of the board said they had retained Joon H. Kim, a former acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and his firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct the investigation. Pressure from Congress was building in parallel. Republican committee chairs in the House of Representatives, including Brian Mast of the Foreign Affairs Committee and John Moolenaar of the Select Committee on China, asked Huang for a closed-door briefing on his ties to Alice Huang, with a deadline of November 11, according to Yahoo Finance. Moolenaar later told Fox Business that subpoenas were likely if Huang did not agree. China has denied the allegations, NBC News reported.

Wednesday, November 11, brought the second report. The New York Times reported that Huang had a relationship with a vice president who reported to him, citing five people who had worked at the company, according to accounts of the report by NBC News and The National. NBC News said it had not confirmed the report, and Nvidia declined to comment, according to The National. That evening, The Wall Street Journal reported that the board was preparing to meet to decide Huang's future, and Bloomberg reported that Nvidia was working with an outside firm to explore possible replacements, according to Yahoo Finance's account of both reports.

The resignation was announced the following morning. The board that on Sunday had expressed confidence in Huang was, by Thursday, thanking him for his contributions.

The share price

Investors had moved before the board did. Nvidia shares closed at $173.73 on Wednesday, up 2.92%, according to Yahoo Finance and The National. In after-hours trading following the second report, they fell by more than 8%, according to NBC News and The National; Yahoo Finance put the after-hours decline at 7%. At the overnight low of $156.20, the shares were at their lowest level since July 2025, Yahoo Finance reported. Nvidia's record close, according to the same coverage, was $239.24 on October 6. By PPC Land's calculation, the overnight low was 34.7% below that peak.

In premarket trading today, the shares were down about 9% before the announcement and around 11% after it, according to investingLive. No figure from the regular session was available at the time of writing.

Analysts had begun adjusting before the resignation. Bernstein downgraded the stock to market-perform and cut its price target from $400 to $200, Baird's Tristan Gerra moved to neutral, and Oppenheimer downgraded the shares and removed its price target, according to Yahoo Finance's live coverage. Raymond James analyst Simon Leopold kept a strong buy rating, arguing in a note that the distraction did not change the company's fundamentals, according to the same coverage.

Who now runs Nvidia

Kress has been chief financial officer since joining Nvidia in September 2013. According to the release, she has led the finance organization and "played a key role in NVIDIA's growth and evolution," and before Nvidia she spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at technology companies including Cisco and Microsoft. The release does not say that she joins the board, and it does not name a deputy or acting chief financial officer to share the load. Until a permanent chief executive is found, one person holds both jobs.

Jones brings a longer history with the company than any title suggests. The release describes him as "an entrepreneur, technology executive, and active venture investor for over 30 years, including serving as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman of Synopsys." Nvidia's 2026 proxy statement adds that he has been a director since 1993 - the year Nvidia was founded - that he was 73 at the time of filing, that he is managing partner of Square Wave Ventures, and that he sits on the audit committee, where he is designated a financial expert, and on the nominating and corporate governance committee. Reuters reported in December 2025 that Jones had sold 250,000 Nvidia shares on December 15 of that year at an average price of $177.33, for more than $44 million, and still held more than 7 million shares indirectly through a family trust.

The board's composition has also shifted. According to the proxy, the board had 10 members in May and approved an increase to 11, with Suzanne Nora Johnson joining effective July 13, 2026. The National reported this week that all directors other than Huang are independent. With Huang gone, by PPC Land's count, the board has 10 members and none of them is an Nvidia executive, assuming no other changes since July.

Results on November 17

The first public test of the interim arrangement comes in five days. Nvidia confirmed today that it will report results for the third quarter of fiscal 2027 on Tuesday, November 17, at approximately 1:20 p.m. Pacific time, followed by an earnings call at 2 p.m. Pacific. According to the company's October 28 announcement of the call, the quarter ended on October 25, 2026; the call will be webcast in listen-only mode at investor.nvidia.com, and questions will be limited to financial analysts and institutional investors.

That earlier announcement said Kress would publish written commentary on the results before the call, posted immediately after the figures are released. She will now do so as interim chief executive as well as chief financial officer. Neither announcement says who else will speak on the call.

The newsroom continued to carry ordinary business news through the turbulence. On November 8, the day the board opened its inquiry, Nvidia published an announcement with Rebellions and SK Telecom on a collaboration "to Advance Sovereign AI Infrastructure With NVIDIA NVLink Fusion," according to the newsroom listing.

Why the marketing industry follows Nvidia's leadership

Nvidia does not sell advertising. Much of the machinery advertisers rely on, however, runs on its hardware, which makes its governance a supply-chain question for the industry rather than a matter only for shareholders.

Meta's ad retrieval system is the clearest example. On October 28, PPC Land reported that Meta measures its Andromeda retrieval model at over 10 billion ads per second on a single Nvidia GH200 GPU, a benchmark from a joint project to which Nvidia contributed optimized code. Scoring every eligible ad for every impression is an inference workload, and it is the kind of computation that makes GPU supply an advertising concern.

The same dependency runs through measurement and creative tools. In April, LiveRamp moved processing onto Nvidia GPUs inside its clean rooms, replacing CPUs in a limited release. In March, Adobe agreed to rebuild its Firefly models on Nvidia software. At Cannes Lions in June, Nvidia's ad tech partners, including Criteo and Taboola, showed GPU-driven campaign automation, and in October Mirakl reported cutting seller onboarding to under two hours on Nvidia GPUs, a figure that came from Nvidia's own post. A clean room running on GPUs, an image model retrained on a vendor's stack, a catalog pipeline built on its chips: each ties a marketing workflow to one supplier's roadmap, the roadmap Jones says will continue without interruption.

The AI model companies that marketers increasingly buy from are tied in too. PPC Land's analysis of Anthropic's IPO filing found that Nvidia GPUs sit behind about $206 billion of Anthropic's capacity deals, on top of Nvidia's November 2025 agreement to invest up to $10 billion in the company. Anthropic, which builds frontier models, signed those capacity deals with Amazon, Google and Microsoft - hyperscalers that run Nvidia hardware alongside chips of their own.

Those alternatives are growing. On November 9, Google said that its TPU business was nearing 100 customers as it added two new systems. At the end of October, Barclays' Alex Altmann questioned whether everyday AI tasks will keep needing Nvidia's most powerful chips, pointing to smaller models that run on laptops. The spending that sustains the market remains very large: S&P Global Ratings forecasts Meta's capital expenditure at more than $225 billion in 2027, money Meta raises from an advertising business.

Export controls remain unresolved

The departure does not close the policy questions behind the week's events. The Megaspeed reports concern whether restricted Nvidia chips reached China, a matter that already divides the technology industry. In July, Anthropic backed refusing to sell powerful chips to China, while Nvidia joined 76 other firms in signing an open-weights letter that Huang shared publicly. The board's investigation, the congressional requests for a briefing and the securities lawsuit filed on November 9 all concern events that took place while Huang ran the company. Today's release addresses none of them.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Jensen Huang, Nvidia's founder, who resigned as president, chief executive and director; Colette Kress, executive vice president and chief financial officer, now also interim chief executive; and Harvey C. Jones, a director since 1993 and former Synopsys chief executive, now the board's first chair.

What: Nvidia's board announced Huang's resignation, effective immediately, and began a search for a permanent chief executive that will consider internal and external candidates. The release gives no reason and does not mention the independent investigation the board opened on November 8 or the reports of two extramarital relationships that preceded the departure.

When: The announcement was made today, November 12, 2026, before US markets opened. It followed the board's investigation announcement on November 8, the retention of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz on November 10 and a New York Times report on November 11. Third-quarter fiscal 2027 results are due on November 17.

Where: Nvidia is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and its shares trade on Nasdaq under the ticker NVDA. The reports behind the investigation concern Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company.

Why: The departure removes the chief executive of the company whose GPUs run a large share of the AI systems used in advertising, from Meta's ad retrieval to clean rooms and the models of companies such as Anthropic. The board says operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap will continue without interruption, but the questions raised by the past week - the investigation, the congressional requests and the securities lawsuit - remain open.