By Hamza Faisal
Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive and a member of the board of Nvidia, effective immediately, the company announced on Thursday, ending the 33-year run of the co-founder who turned the chipmaker into the engine of the artificial intelligence boom.
Chief financial officer Colette Kress will serve as interim chief executive while retaining her CFO duties until a permanent successor is named. Nvidia also appointed Harvey C. Jones, a longtime board member and former chief executive of chip-design software firm Synopsys, as its first-ever board chair.
A sudden end to a 33-year run
Huang, 63, co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and led it from a graphics-chip startup through gaming and data centres to the centre of the AI boom, building the company into the world's most valuable chipmaker. Nvidia's announcement thanked him for his contributions to the company and the industry over more than three decades, and gave no reason for his departure. Huang is also the company's fourth-largest investor, with a stake of about 3.61 percent.
The board said it will consider both internal and external candidates for the permanent job, and that Kress will keep her finance role in the meantime. The company has no chief operating officer and no public succession plan, and more than 60 managers reported directly to Huang.
Weeks of mounting pressure
The resignation follows weeks of mounting pressure. On Sunday, November 8, Huang admitted to an extramarital affair with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data-centre firm Megaspeed, whom US officials reportedly suspect of spying for China. The following day, Nvidia's board opened an independent investigation, overseen by a committee of independent directors with outside counsel, saying it had no reason to believe company secrets had been compromised.
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported a second relationship, with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice-president of healthcare, who reported directly to him. Hours later, The Wall Street Journal reported that the board was preparing to remove Huang, and directors met on Wednesday night to decide his future. The White House was reportedly aware of the meeting. Less than a day later, Huang was out. Beijing has rejected the spying allegations.
What happens next
Investors reacted sharply to the uncertainty. Nvidia shares rose almost 3 percent during Wednesday's regular session, then fell by as much as 9 percent in after-hours trading after the Journal's report. The company holds an estimated 90 percent of the AI chip market, making the leadership change one of the most consequential in the industry's history.
Nvidia said it will release its quarterly results as scheduled on Tuesday, November 17, the first earnings report of the post-Huang era. How the market responds when trading opens, and who the board picks to lead the company that powers nearly every major AI system, will now shape the next chapter of the AI boom.
