Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia’s chief executive, president and board member, the chipmaker announced on November 12, 2026. Nvidia named finance chief Colette Kress interim CEO while it searches for a permanent successor.
Huang led the firm he co-founded in 1993, Nvidia’s biography says. His time in charge has now ended. The board had opened a probe into reports of a foreign spy effort aimed at him. Huang had also said he was unfaithful to his wife.
Why Jensen Huang resigns amid a board probe
Nvidia confirms the change at the top. But it does not say why Huang chose to leave. Reuters links his exit to pressure over reports of two affairs. One involved a woman whom US officials suspect of spying for China.
In a message to staff on November 8, Huang acknowledged that he had been unfaithful to his wife. He said sorry to his family and staff. In that message, he took the blame for the hurt he had caused. He also pledged to help the board with its probe.
Nvidia’s board said on November 8 that independent directors would oversee the inquiry, with help from outside independent counsel. The board said it would look into reports that foreign spies had targeted Huang.
At that point, the board said it had no reason to believe national security or Nvidia’s secrets had been compromised. However, that was its view at the start of the probe. It was not the result of a finished review.
Reuters identifies the woman at the center of the espionage allegations as Alice Huang, formerly of Singapore-based cloud company Megaspeed. It reports that Beijing denied she was a spy. Huang said he had been unfaithful. But that admission does not prove the spy claims.
Reuters also reported that The New York Times described a second relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of healthcare. Powell reported to Huang, Reuters says. This remains a press report. Nvidia’s statement on his exit does not make such a finding.
Who Huang is and how he built Nvidia
According to Nvidia’s biography, Huang worked at Advanced Micro Devices and LSI Logic before founding the company. He earned degrees in electrical engineering at Oregon State University and Stanford University. He served as Nvidia’s president and CEO from its inception.
Nvidia’s corporate history dates its founding to April 5, 1993, with Huang, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem as co-founders. They aimed to bring 3D graphics to games and other media. Thus, the firm’s roots were in images on screens. The AI boom came much later.
The company’s timeline marks 1999 as the year it introduced its graphics processing unit, or GPU. In 2006, it unveiled CUDA, a way to use GPUs for science and research. As a result, the chips could do work beyond drawing images.
Nvidia also links its chips to the AlexNet neural network breakthrough in 2012. Its history shows how chips built for graphics found a role in AI. Reuters says the chips can perform many sums at once. This helped put Nvidia at the heart of the AI boom.
Stocks fall as Jensen Huang resigns
Reuters reported a fall of more than 12% in Nvidia shares during early trading on November 12. A separate Reuters market report on Euronext showed a smaller fall. CoreWeave also fell, while rival chip firms gained. However, these were moves during the day, not closing prices.
The Euronext update shows that the selloff did not affect all AI-linked companies alike. The table uses that one Reuters report. These are reported price moves, not live quotes.
| Company | Share-price change |
|---|---|
| Nvidia | -8.2% |
| CoreWeave | -9.1% |
| AMD | 3.7% |
| Broadcom | 5.6% |
Source: Reuters via Euronext, intraday report
Data as of: 2026-11-12
Nvidia and CoreWeave fell while AMD and Broadcom rose in this intraday snapshot.
Reuters quoted Joe Saluzzi of Themis Trading on the risks. He asked whether trouble at Nvidia could cut off funds to smaller firms that need them. However, he was raising a risk. He did not say Nvidia had stopped funding its partners.
Who takes over and what happens next
Nvidia says Kress will retain her chief financial officer role while serving as interim CEO. She joined the company in September 2013 after finance roles at technology firms including Cisco and Microsoft. The board will look both inside and outside the firm for its next chief.
The company also appointed Harvey C. Jones as its first board chair. Jones said the board expected operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap to continue without interruption. That is what the board expects. It does not ensure a smooth handover.
Nvidia says its fiscal 2027 third-quarter results remain scheduled for November 17, 2026, at about 1:20 p.m. Pacific Time. Its earnings call is set for 2 p.m. Pacific Time that day.
Sources: Nvidia leadership announcement, Nvidia board statement, Huang’s message, Nvidia biography, Nvidia history, Reuters via Investing.com, Reuters markets via Euronext
