In Collette Kress, Nvidia’s board has chosen a steady hand to lead the company through its most uncertain period in its history.
Kress has served as the company’s chief financial officer since 2013. She is a familiar face on Wall Street, regularly appearing at conferences and discussing the intricacies of the company’s sprawling operations. Before Nvidia, Kress worked at Cisco, another major technology company, and Microsoft.
Huang Long relied on Kress during the company’s financial conferences and earnings calls to update the investing public on the latest developments regarding the company’s operations.
Nvidia’s board said it would search for a permanent CEO and consider internal and external candidates.
Kress’ ascension to CEO comes after the world’s second-largest public company was hit by multiple scandals involving its founder.
On Wednesday, the New York Times, citing five people working at Nvidia, reported that Huang was having an extramarital affair with a married health care executive who reported to him, which appears to go against Nvidia’s code of conduct. NBC News has not independently verified these claims.
Nvidia and the executive did not respond Wednesday to multiple requests for comment on the Times report.
The report regarding the alleged relationship followed reports that Huang had an affair with Alice Huang, a businesswoman believed to be a spy for China. The two Huangs are not related.
This spring, Secretary of State Marco Rubio circulated a memo to Trump administration officials describing how U.S. intelligence showed that Huang was romantically involved with a company executive who was an asset of Chinese spy services, according to a person close to Nvidia and a former national security official with knowledge of the matter. The New York Times and the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter, first reported the memo last week.
Alice Huang held a management position at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company that purchased advanced chips from Nvidia. Megaspeed and other related companies remain under U.S. criminal investigation over allegations they smuggled U.S.-made chips into China.
The precise role of Alice Huang and her relationship with Chinese spy services are unclear. It is possible that she was not a career spy for China’s spy agency, the Ministry of State Security, but was asked to cooperate and share information based on her access to Jensen Huang, according to the former national security official.
Concerns about the Nvidia CEO’s extramarital activity have added to concerns about smuggling or illegal access of Nvidia chips by Chinese AI companies. Nvidia said it complied with U.S. export laws.
On Sunday, Nvidia’s board announced it was investigating whether Huang was the victim of a foreign intelligence plot. She announced Tuesday that she had hired a former acting U.S. attorney and his law firm to lead the investigation.
Huang apologized in a memo to employees and said he supported the independent investigation.
“I have been unfaithful to my wife,” he wrote. “My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry.”
Several Washington officials have called for further scrutiny of Nvidia and for Huang to testify about his relationship with the alleged Chinese agent following the reports.
China has denied the allegations, calling them “purely baseless and aimed at defaming China.”
Even before Wednesday’s Times publication, Nvidia shares had plunged 11% this week, wiping out nearly $500 billion in paper value. Huang’s departure leaves a host of unknowns for the company, whose valuation has soared to more than $1 trillion due to insatiable demand for its GPU chips. These specialized processors underpin the AI applications that have propelled the stock market and economic growth to new heights.
For years, Huang has been the chief ambassador for the artificial intelligence industry, regularly appearing alongside heads of state and other CEOs as the industry spends billions of dollars on investments and building AI models and data centers.
Nvidia recognized Huang’s contributions to the industry in its announcement on Thursday. “Jensen’s contributions to NVIDIA are profound,” a statement said. “The Board and the company thank Jensen for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry.”
After coming up with the idea for Nvidia at a Denny’s restaurant in Silicon Valley with co-founders Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, Huang grew the company into a $4 trillion global chip giant over the next 30 years.
Before Wednesday’s announcement of a second case, many high-profile figures from Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington came to Huang’s defense. President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday that Huang had “done an incredible job for our country.”
“I think he’s an honorable man,” Trump said. “I think he probably has an excuse for that. You need to hear it.”
Shaun Maguire, a partner at venture capital group Sequoia, said on
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, responded under Maguire’s post, writing, “I agree.”
Before the decision, Musk said in a response to a post Wednesday evening that it would be “an honor” to hire Huang.
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