Jensen Huang, who co-founded Nvidia and built it into the world’s most valuable company on the back of the artificial intelligence boom, has resigned as its chief executive with immediate effect, the company said on Thursday (Nov 12).
Chief financial officer Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while keeping her finance role until a permanent successor is found. The board has begun a search that will consider both internal and external candidates.
Nvidia also named board member Harvey Jones, a former chief executive of chip design software company Synopsys, as the first chairman of its board. Huang has stepped down from the board as well.
The company did not give a reason for his departure in its announcement. Pressure on Huang, 63, had been mounting after media reports in recent days about his personal relationships, including one with a businesswoman whom US authorities reportedly suspect of spying for China, a claim Beijing has denied.
Earlier this month, Nvidia’s board launched a review, led by independent directors with outside legal counsel, into whether Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation.
Nvidia shares fell sharply in premarket trading in New York after the announcement.
Huang’s exit leaves the AI industry without one of its most influential figures. Nvidia’s AI chips have become the main engine of the boom, and the company has poured its growing cash pile back into cloud providers, suppliers and AI developers. His departure could also affect US chip export policy, as he had pushed to keep access to the Chinese market and built close ties with US President Donald Trump.
Huang visited Malaysia in December 2023, when YTL Power International announced a partnership with Nvidia to build AI infrastructure and supercomputers in the country.
Worries about AI spending had already weighed on technology shares this month, including on Bursa Malaysia, where tech stocks slumped as an AI selloff spread from Wall Street.