For the first time in 33 years, NVIDIA is being led by someone other than Jensen Huang. And the successor is neither an engineer nor a chip designer, nor is he one of the founders of Silicon Valley.
NVIDIA's 59-year-old Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress was appointed as interim CEO on Thursday, following the sudden resignation of Jensen Huang. The reason for his resignation was reports of an extramarital affair, as well as allegations involving a person suspected to be a Chinese intelligence officer.
According to the regulatory documents submitted by NVIDIA, Kress will continue to serve in the role of CFO during the board of directors' search for a formal successor. She is taking over a company with a market value in trillions of dollars, a group of investors that has been impacted, and a management structure that was built around one person.
From Texas Instruments to NVIDIA's AI Empire
Kress joined NVIDIA in September 2013, a time when the company was primarily known for its graphics cards used in video games. Bringing with her nearly 25 years of financial experience, she came from some of the largest technology companies in the United States.
She first worked at Texas Instruments for 8 years, and then joined Microsoft in 1997. During her 13-year tenure at Microsoft, she was promoted to a position in the Server and Tools division, where she was responsible for the financial strategy of Microsoft's enterprise computing business.
In 2010, she joined Cisco, where she served as Senior Vice President of Business Technology and Operations Finance and CFO, responsible for the financial planning and business development of this networking giant.
According to her official profile, Kress holds a degree in finance from the University of Arizona, as well as a degree from South Methodist University MBA.
Her decision to join NVIDIA also received an unusual form of support. Forbes reported that her two sons, who are avid gamers at the time, encouraged her to join the company because the graphics chips produced by NVIDIA were powering their favorite games.
Wired reports that Jensen Huang personally recruited her and explained his vision for AI calculations to her using a whiteboard during their communication. At that time, NVIDIA was the smallest company that Kress had previously worked for.
The woman who drove NVIDIA's financial expansion
When Kress joined NVIDIA, the company's annual revenue was approximately $4.13 billion. By the fiscal year 2026, this figure had grown to $215.9 billion, representing a more than 50-fold increase.
Jensen Huang led NVIDIA's technical strategy, while Kress was responsible for supporting its expansion in financial matters, driving the company's growth from gaming hardware to data centers and AI infrastructure.
During her tenure, she oversaw transactions such as NVIDIA's acquisition of the network equipment expert Mellanox for $6.9 billion, as well as the company's increasingly active investment in enterprises that purchase its computing hardware.
These relationships now also include CoreWeave. In January of this year, NVIDIA invested another $2 billion in CoreWeave. The rapid growth of CoreWeave reflects the huge demand from the market for NVIDIA's driven computing, as well as the financial costs associated with building such infrastructure.
Kress also became NVIDIA's main financial spokesperson for Wall Street, frequently explaining profit margins, chip demand, and revenue forecasts during earnings conference calls.
Forbes listed her among the wealthiest self-made women in the United States in 2026, and as of the close on Wednesday, she held nearly $750 million worth of NVIDIA stocks.
Challenge
At the time of Kress's takeover, NVIDIA was facing external doubts about the sustainability of its AI infrastructure spending. Before the board of directors publicly announced an investigation into Jensen Huang's romantic relationship, NVIDIA's market value had already evaporated by approximately $1.27 trillion from its October high.
She also has to deal with Washington's restrictions on the export of advanced chips to China, as well as the scrutiny surrounding NVIDIA's business relationships. The board of directors stated that there is no reason to believe that the allegations related to Jensen Huang involve any breach of company secrets or national security of the United States.
Her financial expertise cannot fully replace Jensen Huang’s technical background, as well as his personal relationships with developers, customers, and governments. To maintain NVIDIA’s leading position in engineering, close collaboration with executives responsible for chips and software is necessary.
Kress indicates that she will continue the legacy of Jensen Huang, and she stated, 'The strength of NVIDIA always comes from its employees.'
Her first major public test will come on Tuesday, November 17th, when NVIDIA will release its financial report for the third quarter of fiscal year 2027. The company has scheduled the financial report release for around 1:20 PM Pacific Time, followed by a investor conference call at 2:00 PM.
