Colette Kress, executive vice president and CFO of Nvidia.
Courtesy: Nvidia
Nvidia CFO Colette Kress, who has 13 years of experience at the company, is taking the interim helm of the world’s most valuable chipmaker following the sudden resignation of Jensen Huang.
“She’s the only one internally who has that significant respect,” Dan Ives, an analyst at Yorkville Ives & Co., told CNBC before the news was made official. “She’s more than just a CFO. I would almost consider her a COO.”
Nvidia has not announced a succession plan and said the board is considering internal and external candidates.
Kress joined Nvidia in September 2013, after holding financial positions at Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments. At Nvidia, Kress has been the other big voice on earnings calls, reporting the company’s results and answering questions alongside Huang.
“NVIDIA’s strength has always come from its people, and along with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen has created over the past 33 years,” Kress said in a Thursday statement. “We will continue to advance the work that has made NVIDIA a leader in accelerated computing and AI, and seize the opportunities that lie ahead. Our focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders.”
Huang, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993, was known for running the company without a clear second-in-command, personally deciding priority projects and emailing engineers for details.
But when it comes to Kress, “Jensen didn’t do anything without her,” Ives said. “It’s a Swiss army knife for Nvidia. Everything that is strategic: customers, partners, technology. She was involved.”
CNBC spoke with nearly a dozen Nvidia insiders and former Kress colleagues. They described her as savvy, competent, thoughtful and lucid.
Kress intervenes at a moment of crisis. Huang has been Nvidia’s spokesperson, the face of the company, and the founder synonymous with the brand. He was also a pioneer in the AI chip industry, making him the central figure in the multitrillion-dollar boom boosting the U.S. economy.
Kress “understands the business deeply and has demonstrated fierce loyalty to the company,” Daniel Newman, CEO of Futurum Group, wrote in a message to CNBC.
Nvidia shares plunged 14% on Thursday following the announcement. The stock is on pace for its sixth consecutive weekly decline, the longest decline since 2012. Stocks have been dragged down by widespread concerns about the development of AI, particularly after the midterm elections, which resulted in blowout victories for Democrats.
Nvidia is expected to report quarterly results on Tuesday.
The Huang saga burst into the public spotlight on Sunday, when the CEO apologized for being unfaithful to his wife. This followed reports that he had an affair with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman who US intelligence suspects of being a spy. Pressure intensified Wednesday evening after The New York Times reported a second affair, this one with an employee named Kimberly Powell.
Kress was recognized in May as one of Fortune’s Most Influential Women in Business. Her LinkedIn profile says she’s in Saratoga, California, a wealthy city 16 miles south of Nvidia’s headquarters in Santa Clara.
As for the long-term leadership plan, Ives said Kress will likely serve as interim CEO for about a year, but the permanent replacement will come from outside the company.
“You need someone who has been on the world stage,” Ives said. “Given the company’s importance not only in the US technology industry but also in the global economy.”
— CNBC’s Seema Mody and Jordan Novet contributed to this report
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