Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns; CFO Colette Kress becomes interim CEO

3 min

Nvidia announced that co-founder Jensen Huang resigned as President, CEO, and Board member effective immediately. CFO Colette Kress was appointed Interim CEO while remaining CFO. The board named longtime director Harvey C. Jones as its first Chair and began a search for a permanent CEO, with Apple’s Johny Srouji cited as an early frontrunner.

Market Reaction

Nvidia shares fell more than 10% in premarket trading and fluctuated in the mid-$150s to low-$160s by midday. The move extended recent declines that erased hundreds of billions in market value.

Scope of the Controversy

Huang’s resignation followed internal and public scrutiny over two extramarital affairs. One involved Alice Huang, a businesswoman tied to Singapore-based AI firm Megaspeed, an Nvidia customer. U.S. authorities identified her as a suspected asset of China’s Ministry of State Security. Huang was photographed with her multiple times. He apologized to employees for infidelity and denied sharing confidential or national-security-sensitive information.

Subsequent reporting alleged a separate relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of healthcare and a direct report to Huang. Nvidia’s board opened an internal investigation and accepted Huang’s resignation after a late-night meeting, citing personal misconduct involving a subordinate and national-security concerns linked to the alleged Chinese intelligence connection.

Leadership Changes

Colette Kress: Executive Vice President and CFO since 2013. Prior roles: senior finance positions at Cisco, Microsoft, and Texas Instruments. Education: bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Arizona and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. Under her CFO tenure, Nvidia’s revenue scaled from roughly $4 billion to above $200 billion as the firm led AI accelerators. As Interim CEO, she is tasked with continuity while the board runs a CEO search.

Succession speculation: Apple’s Johny Srouji is reported as an early candidate for the permanent CEO role.

Tokenized NVDA Exposure on Hyperliquid

Following Huang's resignation as Nvidia CEO, who is the Apple exec being tipped for the permanent role, and how has the NVDA price reacted? Hyperliquid: NVDA

Hyperliquid lists leveraged perpetual contracts referencing Nvidia’s share price with 24/7 trading. The NVDA perp tracked the equity decline closely during the scandal.

Price action: from about $170–$175 to approximately $158–$160 by November 12. Recent sessions: down about 9–11% with larger cumulative drawdown from pre-scandal highs.
Microstructure: elevated open interest in the hundreds of millions of dollars; funding rates shifted as positioning flipped between longs and shorts.
Flow and risk: volume surged on resignation headlines, indicating forced liquidations and rapid repositioning. Technicals: break of short-term supports; momentum deeply oversold near term.
Transmission: stabilization or reversal in the listed NVDA stock would likely be reflected quickly in the perp, with leverage amplifying both downside and rebound magnitude.