Jensen Huang resigned from NVIDIA: CFO Colette Kress named interim CEO, shares fell 10% in premarket trading

Jensen Huang has resigned as president and chief executive officer of NVIDIA and has left the board of directors.

This was stated in the company’s official announcement.

Executive vice president and chief financial officer Colette Kress has been appointed interim CEO. She will combine the new responsibilities with her primary role as CFO until the company names a successor to Huang.

Following the news of Huang’s departure from his post, NVIDIA shares fell 10% in premarket trading in the US. The previous day, after reports of Huang’s possible dismissal, they lost 8.6% in after-hours trading. These are figures from different trading sessions.

Colette Kress joined NVIDIA in September 2013 and has led its finance function since then. Prior to that, Kress spent nearly 25 years in financial roles at technology companies, including Cisco and Microsoft.

The board of directors also elected its chair for the first time — Harvey Jones. He has more than 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur, technology executive and venture investor, and previously led Synopsys.

According to Jones, the board trusts Kress and the management team and expects the company to continue operations, meet obligations to customers and develop products without interruption.

At the same time, the company’s board has begun searching for a permanent leader from candidates both inside and outside the company.

What led to Jensen Huang’s resignation

NVIDIA launched an independent investigation after reports that Huang may have been a target of Chinese intelligence. The reports concerned his ties to Elis Huang, who previously worked at Singapore-based Megaspeed — a company that purchased NVIDIA chips.

U.S. intelligence agencies suspected she might have been collecting information about NVIDIA and contacts of its chief executive with the U.S. administration regarding chip exports to China. In a message to employees, Jensen Huang acknowledged he was unfaithful to his wife and apologized to his family, colleagues and partners.

At the start of the probe, NVIDIA said it had no reason to believe that its trade secrets or information related to U.S. national security had been disclosed. At that time the board also expressed confidence in Huang and his team, and Huang himself pledged to cooperate with investigators.

Read also: Alphabet lost $500 billion in market value after a report on AI spending and a slowdown in search advertising