Nvidia appointed a 13-year veteran executive behind some of its biggest financing deals as interim CEO on Thursday after the abrupt resignation of its longtime leader shook Silicon Valley.
With Jensen Huang stepping down over reports of extramarital affairs, including reportedly with a Chinese spy, Nvidia has turned to Colette Kress to take control.
Kress is a high-ranking financial executive who regularly communicated with Wall Street analysts and investors as the company burgeoned into a $4 trillion linchpin in the artificial intelligence industry.
Kress has been a key architect of Nvidia's strategy of striking partnerships with and investing in companies that are also customers in what are referred to as "circular financing" deals. The arrangements have raised concerns about financial risk.
For example, Nvidia holds a nearly 13% stake in the neocloud company CoreWeave, which purchases Nvidia chips and rents out the computing power to companies developing AI models. When shares of Nvidia slid Thursday, CoreWeave shares plunged 7%.
The company also has financing deals with the AI lab OpenAI and the neocloud Nebius, among others.
Kress joined the California chipmaker in 2013 as executive vice president and chief financial officer. She takes over for Jensen Huang, known for his black-leather jacket, who became something of a global spokesperson for the power of AI, whose sudden departure spooked Wall Street.
Shares have fallen more than 30% since they hit an all-time high in October, falling another 5% Thursday.
A singular figure in the tech world, Huang faced growing calls to step down after The New York Times reported on his relationship with a woman alleged to be a Chinese spy. Late Wednesday, the paper and other outlets reported on another inappropriate relationship between Huang and another Nvidia executive who reported to him.
In a statement Thursday, Kress said that Nvidia's "strength has always come from its people" and that she would build on the "extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years."
Nvidia's high-end chips have become the building blocks used to build out AI. And in her CFO role, Kress was a key architect in financing deals with many of Nvidia's biggest customers that include AI titans from Anthropic to CoreWeave.
Yorkville Ives financial analyst Dan Ives said Thursday that he and his team are "big fans" of Kress, though he's not convinced that she will be Huang's permanent replacement.
"Colette Kress has built enormous credibility internally and externally," Ives wrote, but there's a "good chance Nvidia's board looks to the outside for a CEO."
Former Apple CEO Tim Cook, who stepped down from leading the tech giant in August after 15 years at the helm, received the most high-profile endorsement on Thursday: President Donald Trump.
"Now that Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place – TIM COOK of Apple," Trump said on his Truth Social network.
"A Legend replaces a Legend!"
Kress has a long resume in the tech world. Prior to joining Nvidia, she worked at Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments in a variety of roles, according to an executive bio on the company's website. She is a University of Arizona graduate with an MBA from Southern Methodist University.
Thanks to Nvidia's soaring stock, Kress is one of the world's wealthiest executives, with a personal worth estimated by Forbes in June at over $1 billion. But Nvidia shares have fallen by nearly a third since then. She was awarded a pay package worth $14 million for Nvidia's fiscal 2026, according to the company's proxy statement.
Nvidia did not directly address the extramarital affairs in Thursday's announcement. But over the weekend, the company said it was investigating whether Huang was "the target of a foreign intelligence effort" – and the then-CEO separately apologized for being unfaithful to his wife. China's Foreign Ministry has dismissed the spying allegations.
