Key facts
- Nvidia named CFO Colette Kress interim CEO after Huang's resignation as CEO, president and board member.
- Business Insider reported the exit followed reports of multiple extramarital affairs and a board investigation into a possible foreign intelligence effort.
- Huang led Nvidia with as many as 60 direct reports under a deliberately flat structure, Business Insider reported.
- David Astorino of RHR International told Business Insider the structure created key-person risk, where too much control rests with one executive.
- In a 2025 Nasdaq survey of about 700 board members and executives, 21% said their boards had no CEO succession plan, per Business Insider.
- Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Nvidia said Jensen Huang resigned as CEO, president and board member on November 11, 2026, and the chipmaker named CFO Colette Kress interim CEO while it searches for a permanent replacement, including internal and external candidates, Business Insider reported.
Business Insider reported that the exit followed reports of multiple extramarital affairs and a board investigation into concerns that Huang may have been the subject of a foreign intelligence effort. Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Huang cofounded Nvidia in the early 1990s and led it with as many as 60 direct reports under a deliberately flat structure at the top, which he credited with keeping information "fluid" and employees empowered, Business Insider reported. David Astorino, a senior partner at leadership consulting firm RHR International, told Business Insider that the arrangement left a thin succession bench and created "key-person risk," in which too much control rests with a single executive. Astorino said the appointment of an internal interim CEO while Nvidia searches for a permanent replacement suggests the company did not have an obvious candidate in mind behind the scenes.
Dan Kaplan, managing partner and head of the HR practice at consulting firm ZRG, told Business Insider that founders can be conditioned to brush off doubts after years of being told their ideas would fail, making it hard to persuade them to plan for a future without them. "When you have a flat organization like this, it's great for speed. It's not great for developing leaders," Kaplan said.
In a 2025 Nasdaq survey of about 700 board members, CEOs, executives and governance professionals, 21% said their boards had no CEO succession plan, Business Insider reported. Business Insider also reported that Nvidia named board member Harvey Jones, an investor at the company since 1993, its first chairman.