Nvidia has handed its top job on an interim basis to Colette Kress, its 59-year-old chief financial officer, as the chipmaker begins its first leadership transition without co-founder Jensen Huang, who stepped down on Thursday after running the company for three decades. The move came amid a cloud of scandal, including reports that Huang had a relationship with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy. Nvidia is now searching for a permanent successor.
Kress joined Nvidia in 2013 after long stints at Microsoft, Cisco and Texas Instruments, and a 13-year veteran of the company, she has long served as the one executive willing to check Huang's ambitions. Sources said she pushed back as he drove the chipmaker deeper into multibillion-dollar AI investments, clashing with Huang and the sales team over massive financing deals, including investments in OpenAI and AI infrastructure companies such as Lambda. A proposed $250 billion plan to support an OpenAI data center project in Ohio was ultimately pared to $120 billion. Some on Wall Street had questioned whether these deals were feeding an increasingly circular AI economy.S1
People who know Kress describe her as a calming contrast to Huang's often confrontational style. One source called her a pragmatist who can help stabilise markets during the search, and said she had been on recent calls to reassure customers and suppliers. That source also suggested Nvidia under her may approach Washington more like other tech companies, seeking to build capital and make friends rather than picking a fight over export controls as it did under Huang.S1
Not all observers are convinced. Many investors, analysts and industry sources questioned whether a finance executive could preserve the technological risk-taking that turned Nvidia into an AI chips powerhouse. Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, said interim placement made sense to keep markets calm but that Kress was not the long-term visionary Nvidia needs. Nvidia shares slumped 14% to their lowest in nearly 16 months on Thursday, underscoring the market's unease as the company searches for a permanent chief.S1
