Jensen Huang has resigned as Nvidia’s president, chief executive and director, effective immediately, ending a tenure that began when he co-founded the company in 1993. The board accepted his resignation on November 11 and named Colette Kress, Nvidia’s chief financial officer since 2013, as interim CEO, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 12.
Kress, 59, will remain CFO while the board looks for a permanent successor. The board “will consider internal and external candidates,” Nvidia said. It also appointed Harvey C. Jones, 73, a director since 1993 and a former chief executive and executive chairman of Synopsys, as its first-ever chair.
“The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team, and we expect the company’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption,” Jones said in a press release. Kress said she was “committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years.”
The filing and the release give no reason for the resignation and include no statement from Huang. In an email to employees on November 8, Huang said he had been unfaithful to his wife. The email followed reports that US officials had concluded Alice Huang, an executive at the Singapore-based cloud company Megaspeed who had developed a close relationship with him, was a Chinese intelligence asset.
The board opened an independent investigation the same day and said it had confidence in Huang. On November 11, The New York Times reported that he had had another extramarital relationship, with an Nvidia vice president who reported to him.
Nvidia’s proxy statement, filed in May, said its board had an independent lead director, Stephen C. Neal, “rather than a chairperson.” The same filing lists Huang as the beneficial owner of 870.6 million shares, or 3.58 percent of the company’s common stock, as of March 23.
On November 4, the Republican chairs of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on the CCP and the Intelligence Committee asked Huang for a closed-door briefing on November 18 and a reply by November 11. On the afternoon of November 11, Foreign Affairs chair Brian Mast and China committee chair John Moolenaar told reporters they had not heard from him. Asked whether the committees were considering a subpoena if Huang did not agree to appear, Mast said “yes.”
Several lawmakers had called for him to step down. “As a matter of his own conscience, he should resign,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, said on November 11. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Jim Banks have urged Congress to add the AI Overwatch Act, which would tighten controls on advanced chip exports, to the annual defense bill.
Nvidia shares were down 13 percent on the morning of November 12, putting the company’s market value below $4 trillion, and Bernstein cut its price target from $400 to $200. Nvidia said it will report third-quarter results on November 17, as previously scheduled, with an earnings call at 2 p.m. Pacific.
Sources: Nvidia, CNBC (November 12), CNBC (November 11)
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By the Control Plane Editorial Team