It’s official. Jensen Huang, the man who founded Nvidia and led it for 33 years, resigned as CEO on Thursday, effective immediately, and also stepped down from the board. Nvidia didn’t offer a reason, but the backdrop has been ugly. Over the weekend, Huang admitted to being unfaithful to his wife and apologised to family and staff. The board said Sunday it still backed him, but it also opened an independent investigation into reports that Chinese intelligence had targeted him through a relationship with a former Megaspeed executive. By Wednesday, Reuters reported that directors were meeting to discuss removing him after further reports of a relationship with a senior Nvidia executive who reported directly to him.
CFO Colette Kress is stepping in as interim CEO while the board considers internal and external candidates. She’s no placeholder: she’s been CFO since 2013, a stretch in which Nvidia’s annual revenue went from about $4 billion to roughly $216 billion. The board thanked Huang for his “profound” contributions and said it has no reason to think national security was compromised. President Trump, meanwhile, floated former Apple CEO Tim Cook as the successor on Truth Social, though there’s no sign Cook wants the job.
Wall Street wasn’t thrilled. Nvidia shares were down a little over 5% around midday, dipping below $149 at one point, while rival AMD jumped on an analyst upgrade. The wider market barely moved.
