Jensen Huang, the founder and chief executive of Nvidia, has resigned from the chipmaker with immediate effect. The company announced the news on Thursday 12 November 2026, and its shares (ticker NVDA) fell about 5% in trading.
For US readers, this is a leadership shock at a company listed on Nasdaq, the US technology exchange. Nvidia has not said why he left, and its quarterly results are due on Tuesday 17 November.
- Who: Jensen Huang quit as Nvidia’s president, CEO and director; finance chief Colette Kress is interim CEO.
- What: The move took effect immediately; Nvidia gave no reason and named no permanent successor.
- Market: NVDA shares traded near US$164.58 at 12:20 p.m. Eastern Time (ET), down about 5.3%.
- Prediction markets: Polymarket, a betting market, gives 36.5% to a new CEO named by 31 December (12:34 p.m. ET).
- As of 12 November 2026, 12:36 p.m. ET
What Nvidia Has Said
In a press release titled “NVIDIA Announces CEO Transition”, the board said Huang resigned as president, chief executive and board member, effective immediately. The release gives no reason for his departure.
Harvey C. Jones, the new board chair, said he expects operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap to continue without interruption. Kress, the finance chief, said she is committed to building on the foundation Huang created over the last 33 years.
A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the national markets regulator, says the board accepted the resignation on Wednesday 11 November. The filing, a Form 8-K used to report major corporate events, names him by his formal name, Jen-Hsun Huang.
The regulator accepted the filing at 8:52 a.m. ET on Thursday. It discloses no pay or severance terms.
What We Know About the Investigation
On Sunday 8 November, the board announced an independent investigation after recent reporting that Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort. A committee of independent directors oversees the review with outside lawyers.
The board said it had no reason to believe that national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised. Huang supported the review, committed to cooperate and still had the board’s confidence at that point.
On Tuesday 10 November, the independent directors retained Joon H. Kim, a former acting head of the federal prosecutors’ office in Manhattan (the Southern District of New York), to conduct it. Nvidia’s statement also names his law firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
Nvidia has not said that the investigation and the resignation are linked. No findings have been published.
Who Takes Over
Colette Kress, 59, becomes interim chief executive and remains chief financial officer until a permanent successor is named. She has been finance chief since September 2013, and worked at Cisco and Microsoft before that.
Harvey C. Jones, 73, becomes the first chair of Nvidia’s board. He has sat on the board since 1993 and runs Square Wave Ventures, a private family office.
Jones is a former chief executive of Synopsys, a chip-design software company. The board will search internal and external candidates for the permanent chief executive.
What Prediction Markets Say
On Polymarket, an online prediction market, a market asking whether a new Nvidia CEO is named by 31 December 2026 stood at 36.5% at 12:34 p.m. ET, with US$19,573 traded. A separate market on the next CEO had US$636,372 traded, with Colette Kress at 20.5%.
These prices are bets, not polls, and they can move quickly. Another name in that market is priced higher than hers, so her price is not a forecast that she will be chosen.
Why we show this: prediction markets turn real-money bets into a live probability that moves within minutes of the news, which is why investors, campaigns and newsrooms in the United States now follow them closely. We show them next to polls and official results, never instead of them.
What It Means for You
If you own Nvidia directly or through an index fund, expect choppy trading until the board names a permanent leader. NVDA traded near US$164.58 at about 12:20 p.m. ET, down about 5.3% from Wednesday’s close of US$173.73.
The stock closed at US$186.64 on Friday 6 November and US$168.89 on Tuesday 10 November. The quoted price is an intraday level, not a close, and can change before the bell.
Nvidia says operations and customer commitments will continue without interruption. The 17 November results will be the first set of company figures since the announcement.
Watch the results on Tuesday 17 November, due at about 1:20 p.m. Pacific Time (PT), or 4:20 p.m. ET, and the choice of a permanent chief executive. The earnings call follows at 2 p.m. PT.
What Is Not Known
Nvidia has not said why Huang resigned or whether the investigation played a part. The board has not published any findings.
No pay or severance terms have been disclosed, and no permanent successor has been named. It is also unclear how long Kress will serve as interim chief executive.
Connected Coverage
We have followed Nvidia’s role in the AI buildout, including its net income of US$58 billion (on the standard GAAP accounting measure) in the quarter reported in May. Our earlier report on that quarter covers what the AI buildout means for Latin America.
Sources
Primary sources: Nvidia press release “NVIDIA Announces CEO Transition” (12 November 2026); Nvidia Form 8-K, Item 5.02, US Securities and Exchange Commission (12 November 2026); Statement from NVIDIA Board of Directors (8 November 2026); Statement from the Independent Members of the NVIDIA Board (10 November 2026); Polymarket market data (12 November 2026); RT, a market data provider, for NVDA (12 November 2026).
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated AI newsroom. Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief. The Rio Times also runs Ask Rio Times, which answers from 100,000+ of our own articles, the daily Latin America Power Map, and prediction-market odds on elections and markets.. How we use AI · Report an error
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Jensen Huang resign as Nvidia CEO?
Nvidia has not said why. The board announced an independent investigation on 8 November, but the company has not linked it to the resignation, and the findings are not public.
Who is running Nvidia now?
Colette Kress, the chief financial officer, is interim CEO and stays CFO until a permanent successor is named. Harvey C. Jones is the board’s first chair.
When does Nvidia report earnings?
Third-quarter fiscal 2027 results are still set for Tuesday 17 November, at about 1:20 p.m. PT (4:20 p.m. ET). The earnings call is at 2 p.m. PT.
How did Nvidia shares react?
In trading on 12 November, NVDA was near US$164.58, down about 5.3% from Wednesday’s close of US$173.73. The shares had closed at US$168.89 on Tuesday 10 November.