In Collette Kress, Nvidia’s board selected a steady hand to steer the company in its most uncertain period ever.
Kress has been the company’s chief financial officer since 2013. She is a familiar face to Wall Street, regularly appearing at conferences and discussing the intricacies of the company’s sprawling operations. Before Nvidia, Kress worked at Cisco, another major technology company, and Microsoft.
Huang long leaned on Kress during financial conferences and the company’s earnings calls to debrief the investing public about the latest developments with the company’s operations.
Nvidia’s board said that it would search for a permanent CEO and consider internal and external candidates.
Kress’ ascension to the CEO suite comes after the second largest public company in the world was hit with multiple scandals involving its founder.
On Wednesday, The New York Times, citing five people who worked at Nvidia, reported that Huang had an extramarital relationship with a married healthcare executive who reported to him, which appears to run afoul of Nvidia’s code of conduct. NBC News has not independently verified the claims.
Nvidia and the executive did not respond to multiple requests for comment Wednesday about the Times’ report.
The report concerning the alleged relationship followed reports that Huang had an affair with Alice Huang, a businesswoman believed to be a spy for China. The two Huangs are not related.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio circulated a memo to officials in the Trump administration this spring outlining how U.S. intelligence showed that Huang was in a romantic relationship with a business executive who was an asset of China’s spy service, according to a person familiar with Nvidia and a former national security official with knowledge of the matter. The New York Times and the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter, first reported on the memo last week.
Alice Huang held a senior position at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company that was buying advanced chips from Nvidia. Megaspeed and other related firms remain under U.S. criminal investigation of allegations they smuggled American-made chips into China.
Alice Huang’s precise role and relationship with China’s spy service is unclear. It is possible she was not a career spy for China’s spy agency, the Ministry of State Security, but was asked to cooperate and share information based on her access to Jensen Huang, according to the former national security official.
The concerns about the Nvidia CEO’s extramarital activity added to worries about Nvidia chips being smuggled or illegally accessed by Chinese AI companies. Nvidia has said that it follows U.S. export laws.
On Sunday, Nvidia’s board announced it was investigating whether Huang had fallen victim to a foreign intelligence plot. It said Tuesday that it had hired a former acting U.S. attorney and his law firm to conduct the investigation.
Huang apologized in a memo to employees and said he supported the independent investigation.
“I was unfaithful to my wife,” he wrote. “My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry.”
Multiple Washington officials have called for greater scrutiny of Nvidia and for Huang to testify about his relationship with the suspected Chinese agent in the wake of the reports.
China has denied the allegations, calling them “purely unsubstantiated and directed at smearing China.”
Even before Wednesday’s Times report, Nvidia shares had plunged 11% this week, wiping out nearly $500 billion in paper value. Huang’s departure leaves a host of unknowns at the company, the valuation of which has soared to more than $1 trillion amid insatiable demand for its GPU chips. Those specialized processors underpin the AI applications that have powered the stock market and economic growth writ large to new heights.
For years, Huang has effectively been the chief ambassador for the artificial intelligence industry, appearing regularly alongside heads of state and other CEOs as the industry spends trillions of dollars investing and building AI models and data centers.
Nvidia acknowledged Huang’s contributions to the sector in its Thursday announcement. “Jensen’s contributions to NVIDIA are profound,” a statement said. “The Board and the company thank Jensen for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry.”
01:50
After coming up with the idea for Nvidia at a Denny’s restaurant in Silicon Valley with co-founders Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, Huang built the company into a $4 trillion global chip behemoth over the following 30-plus years.
Before Wednesday’s report of a second affair, many high-profile figures across Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington had come to Huang’s defense. President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday that Huang had “done an amazing job for our country.”
“I think he’s an honorable guy,” Trump said. “I think he probably has an excuse for it. You have to hear it.”
Shaun Maguire, a partner at the venture capital group Sequoia, said on X that Huang is “one of the greatest entrepreneurs of this generation,” adding that “two mistakes don’t make a right, and I believe Jensen is irreplaceable for America’s AI leadership.”
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded under Maguire’s post, writing: “I agree.”
Before the decision, Musk said in a response to a post Wednesday night that it “would be an honor” to hire Huang.