Nvidia’s Jensen Huang resigns, chipmaker names CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO

Nvidia's co-founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, has resigned from his position, according to the company's announcement on Thursday. This decision came shortly after Huang admitted to a romantic affair with a suspected Chinese spy, creating a U.S. national security crisis. In a regulatory filing, Nvidia's board accepted Huang's resignation on Wednesday.

The company stated that its CFO and executive vice president, Colette Kress, will serve as interim CEO until a permanent successor is found. Kress will continue to hold her position as CFO. Following Huang's departure, Nvidia's shares experienced a nearly 12% decrease in early morning trading on Thursday, with the stock falling 19% since Friday.

This decline has resulted in a market capitalization loss of over $855 billion. Huang's resignation raises concerns about the future of Nvidia's AI investments and data center expansion. Under his leadership, Nvidia had invested or committed a substantial amount of money in various AI startups and data centers, which together amounted to $99 billion in investments, $25 billion in commitments, and $36 billion in cloud service commitments.

Additionally, the company had invested $2 billion each in CoreWeave and Nebius, and was considering a $2 billion investment in Nscale's West Virginia data center project. Huang's exit has thrown further uncertainty into the AI and data center industries, especially with the already existing concerns about debt levels in the sector.