BREAKING · NOV 12, 2026
Jensen Huang Is Out. The $5 Trillion AI Empire Has a New Boss.
Nvidia's CEO of 33 years resigned in a single afternoon, engulfed by an affair scandal and a suspected Chinese spy. The CFO is now in charge — and half a trillion dollars is gone.
Shares are down roughly 22% in ten days, with the worst of the slide arriving minutes after the resignation hit the wire.
The jacket is gone
For 33 years Jensen Huang was Nvidia. He started the company at a Denny's in 1993, turned graphics cards into the engine of the AI boom, and made the leather jacket a piece of Silicon Valley liturgy. On Thursday the board announced he had resigned as president, CEO and director — effective immediately.
The trigger was not a missed quarter. It was a relationship. Huang admitted an affair with a woman linked to a suspected Chinese spy ring; Reuters then reported a second relationship, with an executive who reported to him. A scandal about export controls and a scandal about the office became one story.
The board moved fast and coldly. Colette Kress, CFO since 2013, was named interim CEO and will keep her finance job. Harvey C. Jones, a Synopsys veteran, became the first chair in Nvidia's history. The search for a permanent CEO is open to outsiders. Wall Street's verdict was a $490 billion hole.
“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.”
Harvey C. Jones · Chair, NVIDIA Board
How a legend fell in seven days
Meet the interim boss
Colette Kress · Interim CEO and EVP, CFO
Joined Nvidia in 2013 after nearly 25 years in finance at Cisco and Microsoft. She has been the numbers person in the room for every record quarter — and now she owns the room.
- Signed off on the AI-capex explosion as CFO
- Keeps the CFO title, plus the CEO's chair
- Not the chosen successor — an interim holding pattern
In their own words
“Colette has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position.”
Harvey C. Jones · Board Chair
“We will continue advancing the work that has made NVIDIA a leader in accelerated computing and AI.”
Colette Kress · Interim CEO
What happens next
The short answers
Sources
- NVIDIA Newsroom
- Reuters
- CNBC
- The New York Times
- CNN
- NPR
- WSJ
- CBS News
- Bloomberg
- The Guardian
- Al Jazeera
Unofficial demo page. Figures as of Nov 13, 2026; markets move. Reporters' details from Nvidia, Reuters, CNBC, NYT, CNN, NPR, Bloomberg and others.