Colette Kress takes NVIDIA’s helm after Jensen Huang exits

By Rebecca Stone

NVIDIA appointed Colette Kress, 59, interim chief executive on Nov. 11, making its longtime finance chief the first person other than Jensen Huang to run the company since he co-founded it in 1993. The board acted after accepting Huang’s resignation as president, CEO and director. Kress will retain her executive vice president and chief financial officer roles while directors search for a permanent CEO among internal and external candidates.

What does the appointment change?

Kress now runs NVIDIA day to day. She signed NVIDIA’s Nov. 12 Form 8-K as interim CEO, executive vice president and chief financial officer; it places her in the executive role, not the board.

She has presented NVIDIA’s numbers on every quarterly call since joining in 2013; this time she must also answer for company direction and leadership.

As interim CEO, Kress had not made a public appearance. Her first public test is NVIDIA’s fiscal 2027 third-quarter results on Nov. 17, followed by the Nov. 18 company meeting.

In NVIDIA’s release, Kress said she was “committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years” and that “our focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders.”

In a memo to employees published by CNBC, Kress said she believed deeply in NVIDIA and its future, thanked staff for their resilience during a very difficult period and promised that leadership would share more in the coming days. She called a company meeting for Nov. 18 at 9 a.m. PT.

Kress had not commented on the reports about Huang, and neither published memo gave a reason for his departure.

Who is Colette Kress?

Before NVIDIA, Kress spent about eight years in finance roles at Texas Instruments, 13 years at Microsoft and three at Cisco, according to Reuters. She joined Microsoft in 1997 and became CFO of its Server and Tools division in 2006.

In 2010, she moved to Cisco as senior vice president and CFO of its Business Technology and Operations Finance organization, covering financial strategy and business development. She holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Arizona and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

NVIDIA hired her as CFO in September 2013. Annual revenue was $4.13 billion then, while fiscal 2026 revenue, which ended in January, reached $215.9 billion, according to Reuters and NVIDIA’s 2026 proxy statement.

She told Fortune in 2024 that NVIDIA was the smallest company she had worked for when she arrived, Reuters reported. Board chair Harvey Jones called her a key architect of NVIDIA’s growth and capital strategy in a Nov. 12 staff memo.

Is Kress a candidate for the permanent job?

NVIDIA has not said whether Kress will seek the permanent position; its board has confirmed only that it will consider internal and external candidates.

Before the appointment, Semafor reported that some directors favored Kress as interim CEO and that Apple hardware chief Johny Srouji was among those being considered for the permanent job. Bloomberg reported that NVIDIA was working with an outside firm to identify candidates and weighing a temporary chief first. Neither report has been confirmed by NVIDIA.

Reuters quoted eToro analyst Josh Gilbert before the decision: “Colette Kress is the obvious choice to steady the ship.” Citi analysts, as reported by CNBC, said she could remain interim CEO while the board evaluated outside candidates.

How is Kress compensated and aligned with shareholders?

NVIDIA’s 2026 proxy statement lists the following compensation, with stock awards valued at grant-date fair value:

• Fiscal 2026: salary of $0.90 million, stock awards of $12.83 million, a $0.60 million cash incentive and total compensation of $14.34 million.
• Fiscal 2025: salary of $0.89 million, stock awards of $19.85 million, a $0.60 million cash incentive and total compensation of $21.36 million.
• Fiscal 2024: salary of $0.90 million, stock awards of $11.76 million, a $0.60 million cash incentive and total compensation of $13.27 million.

Like all NVIDIA executive officers, Kress is an at-will employee with no employment, severance or change-in-control agreement. NVIDIA has not disclosed additional compensation for the interim role, and its Nov. 12 Form 8-K describes none.

Kress’s latest Form 4, filed Sept. 18, shows about 4.78 million shares after the reported transactions: 765,103 held directly and the remainder through grantor retained annuity trusts, a family trust, a limited liability company and family members.

On Sept. 17, she sold 34,918 shares at weighted-average prices of roughly $218 to $220, about $7.6 million, under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted June 16.

At NVIDIA’s Nov. 12 close of $166.19, MLQ.ai calculated her holdings at approximately $794 million. Forbes ranked Kress No. 32 on its 2026 list of America’s richest self-made women, Reuters reported.

What can she control before Nov. 17?

The independent directors retain authority over the CEO search and an investigation into Huang’s ties to Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive whom U.S. officials suspect of spying for China, an allegation Beijing denies.

A committee of independent directors oversees the inquiry, with former acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim and law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz involved.

Jones said the board expects “operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption.”

NVIDIA will report fiscal 2027 third-quarter results at about 1:20 p.m. PT on Nov. 17, as previously scheduled, followed by the earnings call at 2 p.m. PT. For NVIDIA’s competitive position, the immediate test is whether operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap continue without interruption; the board’s permanent-CEO choice will determine who carries that work forward.