2 minBusiness
Nvidia Names CFO Colette Kress Interim CEO After Jensen Huang Resigns
Nvidia's board has tasked Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress with interim CEO duties following Jensen Huang's departure, amid reports linking him to an alleged Chinese spy.
Nvidia has appointed Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim chief executive officer after Jensen Huang resigned. There had been no public signs that Kress might succeed him. Huang's departure reportedly followed reports of his relationship with an alleged Chinese spy, as well as his ties to one of the company's executives. After these reports, Nvidia's shares fell, and national security concerns came to the forefront.
Kress, 59, is currently serving as both CEO and CFO in the interim period. The board has begun searching for a permanent head of the company but did not give a timeline. Nvidia has not yet said who might be considered for the position.
Kress joined Nvidia in September 2013, after roughly three decades working in financial roles. She previously worked at Texas Instruments, Cisco, and Microsoft. She earned a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Arizona and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. During her tenure at the company, Nvidia's revenue grew from $4.13 billion in fiscal 2014 to $130.5 billion in fiscal 2025. Over the same period, the company's market capitalization rose from about $9 billion to nearly $4 trillion. The number of employees grew from about 8,000 to more than 40,000.
In fiscal 2026, Kress's base salary was $900,000, and her total compensation was about $16 million. She owns more than four million Nvidia shares, while Huang owns around 870 million. Forbes estimates Kress's net worth at about $1.2 billion, and she became a billionaire in 2025.
An espionage expert warned of possible security threats and noted that corporate executives are insufficiently prepared for security issues. According to him, the scandal raised the question of whether internal information may have been compromised, though details of the alleged spy case are not yet known. Nvidia reportedly supplies about 80% of the world's graphics processing units, so the situation has drawn heightened attention to the company's management and security.
Source: fortune.com
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