Nvidia names longtime CFO Colette Kress interim CEO

Nvidia appointed its chief financial officer, Colette Kress, as interim chief executive on Thursday, November 12, following Jensen Huang’s resignation. The board’s choice puts a longtime finance leader in charge of the chipmaker as it continues its work in artificial intelligence and accelerated computing.

• Kress joined Nvidia in 2013 and will keep serving as executive vice president and CFO while interim CEO.
• Board chair Harvey Jones said Nvidia’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap were expected to continue without interruption.
• Nvidia’s fiscal 2027 third-quarter results are scheduled for November 17, followed by an earnings call.

Why Nvidia chose Colette Kress

Kress has served as Nvidia’s CFO since joining in 2013. She regularly appears with Huang on quarterly earnings calls, discussing financial performance, customer demand, supply constraints and other business measures, WIRED reported. Nvidia’s revenue was $4.13 billion in the fiscal year she joined and $215.9 billion in fiscal 2026, according to Reuters reporting republished by Dawn.

Analyst Patrick Moorhead told WIRED that Kress has credibility with investors because she answers difficult questions directly. He said she discusses Nvidia’s product roadmap, including systems, networking and software. In a 2023 interview with Globes, quoted by WIRED, Kress said the company focused on investors and innovation rather than its stock price.

Kress’s career before Nvidia

Before joining Nvidia, Kress spent eight years in finance roles at Texas Instruments. She worked at Microsoft from 1997 to 2010, becoming CFO of its Server and Tools division in 2006, then joined Cisco in 2010 as a senior vice president and CFO in its Business Technology and Operations Finance organisation, Reuters reported. WIRED described her pre-Nvidia finance career as spanning more than two decades.

Nvidia has an unusual leadership structure: WIRED reported that dozens of executives had reported directly to Huang and that the company lacked a traditional chief operating officer. The outlet identified Ian Buck, who created Nvidia’s CUDA software platform and oversees high-performance computing, and GeForce executive Jeff Fisher as other potential successors considered before Kress’s appointment. A former Nvidia executive quoted anonymously by WIRED said Kress could step into the role immediately, while noting she lacked Huang’s engineering and technical expertise and had tended to avoid the public spotlight.

What Kress’s interim appointment means

Jones said Nvidia’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap were expected to continue without interruption, according to Hindustan Times. Kress will remain CFO until a permanent CEO is appointed. The reports do not give a timetable for that appointment.

Nvidia plans to release its fiscal 2027 third-quarter results on November 17 at about 1:20 p.m. Pacific Time, with an earnings call scheduled for 2 p.m., Hindustan Times reported. WIRED situated Huang’s resignation amid reports about his personal life; the reasons for his departure have not been established in the reporting cited here.