Shares of NVIDIA fell over 7% on Thursday following news that Jensen Huang is resigning as the AI chipmaker’s president, CEO and board member.
Huang’s exit comes as the executive has faced mounting scrutiny over two extramarital affairs, including one with a woman suspected of spying for China and another with a senior executive who reports to him.
Colette Kress, who has served as the company’s chief financial officer since September 2013, will take over as interim CEO while the board launches a search for Huang’s permanent replacement. That search will consider both internal and external candidates. Kress has nearly 25 years of experience in finance roles at leading tech companies, including Cisco and Microsoft.
“NVIDIA’s strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years,” Kress said in a statement. “We will continue advancing the work that has made NVIDIA a leader in accelerated computing and AI, and execute on the opportunities ahead. Our focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders.”
The leadership shakeup, which raises major questions about the future of one of the world’s most valuable companies, comes days after Nvidia’s board publicly expressed confidence in Huang while launching an independent investigation into reports that he was targeted by a foreign intelligence operation.
On Thursday, the board thanked Huang for his “immeasurable contributions” to the company and tech industry. It also expressed “full confidence” in Kress and the leadership team and said its operations, customer commitments and product roadmap would “continue without interruption.”
“Colette has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position,” Nvidia board chair Harvey Jones added.
As of Thursday morning, Nvidia stock was trading at $164.80 apiece and had a market cap of $3.88 trillion. Its shares are down 15% year to date and 27% in the past six months.
Nvidia will report its third-quarter results on Nov. 17 at 1:20 p.m. PT, with an earnings call with Wall Street analysts and investors at 2 p.m. PT.
More to come…
