Who is Colette Kress, Nvidia's interim CEO? Longtime exec takes top spot after Jensen Huang resigns

With Jensen Huang's resignation on Thursday, Nvidia is bringing longtime tech executive Colette Kress into the role of interim CEO.

Kress first joined the California-based chipmaker back in 2013. She’s served as Nvidia's executive vice president and CFO ever since — and will now be stepping into the top post amid the company's most tumultuous chapter yet.

Huang, who co-founded Nvidia over three decades ago and has since become a singular figure in the tech world, resigned after reports of his extramarital affairs came into the spotlight this week. He faced growing calls to step down after The New York Times reported on his relationship with a woman alleged to be a Chinese spy — and also late Wednesday, when the outlet and later others found Huang was said to have had another affair with an Nvidia employee.

In a statement about her new interim post as CEO on Thursday, Kress said that Nvidia’s “strength has always come from its people" and that she was “committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years.”

She added that the company will “continue advancing the work that has made NVIDIA a leader in accelerated computing and AI.”

Nvidia's high-end chips have emerged as the leading building blocks for artificial intelligence. And in her CFO role, Kress was a key architect for financing deals with many of the company's biggest customers — which today include the likes of other AI titans, such as Anthropic and CoreWeave.

Kress has a long resume in the tech world. Prior to joining Nvidia, Kress worked at Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments in a variety of roles, according to her executive bio on the company’s website.

Nvidia did not directly address the 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.