Jensen Huang leaves Nvidia. Its CFO takes on both jobs.
Colette Kress keeps the finance job as she takes charge ahead of earnings, days after the board announced an independent inquiry.
Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive and a board member. Finance chief Colette M. Kress is taking over as interim CEO while keeping her chief financial officer role.
The board accepted Huang's resignation on November 11, effective immediately, according to the filing disclosed November 12. The handover comes days before Nvidia's next earnings report, still scheduled for November 17.
One executive, two jobs
Kress has led Nvidia's finance organization since 2013. She will hold both roles while the board searches for a permanent CEO, considering candidates inside and outside the company.
The board also appointed longtime director Harvey C. Jones as chair. Jones said he expects Nvidia's operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption.
A board inquiry preceded the departure
On November 8, Nvidia's board announced an independent investigation following reporting that Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. At that time, the board said it had no reason to believe U.S. national security or Nvidia secrets had been compromised, and expressed confidence in Huang and his leadership team.
Independent directors said November 10 that they had retained outside counsel to conduct the investigation. The November 12 transition announcement did not give a reason for Huang's resignation or announce findings from that inquiry.
The next report carries a large sales target
Nvidia supplies processors and systems used in data centers, including those that train and run artificial intelligence models. Its last reported quarter produced $96.2 billion of revenue, more than twice the year-earlier total.
Research by Ticker Byline shows that those sales were about $3.4 billion above the upper end of Nvidia's earlier forecast. We compared the July-quarter result with May's $91 billion target, which allowed 2% above or below that figure.
In August, Nvidia set its next quarterly revenue target at $108 billion, plus or minus 2%, without assuming Data Center compute sales from China. The leadership announcement supplied no new numerical outlook.
Kress takes responsibility for the company as well as its finances ahead of that scheduled report. The Nvidia company profile records the latest results, forecast history and leadership changes.