The short version
- Nvidia announced Thursday that Jensen Huang resigned as president, CEO and a board member, effective immediately, and thanked him for 33 years at the company he co-founded
- The company appointed Executive Vice President and CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO and said she will keep the finance job until a permanent chief is named
- The board named longtime director Harvey C. Jones as its first chair and said it expects operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap to continue without interruption
- The Guardian reported that Nvidia shares fell 13% at the open and were down 7% in morning trading, leaving the company valued at about $3.9 trillion
A leadership change at the leading AI chipmaker
In a statement dated Nov. 12, Nvidia said its board had announced that Jensen Huang resigned as president, chief executive and a member of the board, with the change taking effect immediately. Metro Puerto Rico, citing EFE, also reported that the resignation took effect immediately and that the company named Colette Kress as interim chief and Harvey C. Jones as the first chair of the board.
The Nvidia announcement said Kress, the company's executive vice president and chief financial officer, agreed to serve as interim CEO and will remain CFO until a permanent successor is chosen. Nvidia said Kress has held the finance role since she joined in September 2013, after nearly 25 years in finance positions at Cisco and Microsoft. Metro Puerto Rico reported the same tenure and prior roles.
Nvidia said the board is starting a search that will consider candidates from inside and outside the company. It also said the board appointed Harvey C. Jones as its first chair. According to the company statement, Jones spent more than three decades as a founder, a technology-company executive and a venture investor, and he earlier led Synopsys as chief executive and as executive chairman. Metro Puerto Rico also identified Jones as a former Synopsys chief executive and as the first person to hold the board chair post.
Jones, speaking as board chair in the company statement, said: "The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team." He also said, "we expect the company's operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption." Kress said, "I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years," and added, "Our focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders." Nvidia said it will still release fiscal 2027 third-quarter results on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at about 1:20 p.m. PT, with an earnings call at 2 p.m. PT. Metro Puerto Rico also reported that the earnings date was unchanged.
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What the sources posted
Posts and statements below are the sources' own words, quoted as published. They are not independently verified.
The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team.
The source's own statement, as quoted by NVIDIA Newsroom. Not verified by PuertoRico.com.
Our focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders.
The source's own statement, as quoted by NVIDIA Newsroom. Not verified by PuertoRico.com.
The company Huang built, and what investors are watching
The company statement called Huang's contributions profound, said Nvidia stands among the technology firms that have mattered most worldwide, and thanked him for what he built at the company and for the industry. CNBC reported that Huang co-founded the chipmaker 33 years ago and built it into "a $4 trillion company that powered the artificial intelligence boom." WIRED reported that Nvidia first crossed $4 trillion in value in the summer of 2025 and that, as of September 2026, it controlled about 90 percent of the GPU market. Those figures describe the company's rise; The Guardian put Nvidia's value at about $3.9 trillion after Thursday morning's decline. The Guardian reported that the AI industry depends on Nvidia chips used to train models and to power companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
The Guardian said Nvidia shares plunged 13% at the opening of Wall Street trading, then were down 7% in the morning after a partial rebound. The newspaper said that decline erased more than $320 billion in market value Thursday and more than $600 billion across the week, and it put the firm at about $3.9 trillion. Metro Puerto Rico reported that the shares were falling about 12% in premarket trading. The official Nvidia announcement did not discuss the stock. The Guardian also said Huang owns more than 870 million shares, or about 3.6% of the company, and, citing Bloomberg, estimated his fortune at $145 billion on Thursday morning, a figure the newspaper said placed him 13th among the world's richest people.
The Guardian reported that internal candidates include Kress and Ian Buck, who manages Nvidia's AI hardware and software products, and that other names already being discussed included former Apple CEO Tim Cook, Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas and AMD CEO Lisa Su. Analyst Dan Ives told The Guardian the board had done what "it needed to do, which is rip off the Band-Aid and take Nvidia into its next chapter without him," and that Nvidia still held a lead over rival chipmakers. Neil Wilson, an analyst at Saxo UK, told the newspaper Nvidia would need a "great CEO" to replace Huang and said: "His technical knowledge and understanding of every last bit of product is basically unique and impossible to replicate." Wilson also said, according to The Guardian, that the company was well placed in upcoming products and orders.
The Guardian said President Donald Trump, who had first defended Huang, posted on social media that Cook should take the job, writing that Huang "has done a fantastic job" and adding, "A Legend replaces a Legend!" CNBC noted that Huang was not quoted in the company announcement.
The investigation and reports that preceded the resignation
WIRED reported that Huang stepped down four days after Nvidia announced an internal investigation into an affair with Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le, whom the outlet described as an alleged asset of China's Ministry of State Security. WIRED said the board opened that inquiry on Nov. 8, slightly less than two weeks after The New York Times reported that Chinese intelligence had used the relationship to target Huang. The same WIRED account said the Chinese government has rejected claims that Alice Huang was a spy. The Guardian said the board this week appointed the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct a "thorough and independent" investigation into the relationship, and Metro Puerto Rico also reported that the board hired that firm.
CNBC reported that Huang, 63, apologized on Sunday for being "unfaithful to my wife." WIRED said the companywide email acknowledged an affair, apologized to his family and to Nvidia employees, and pledged cooperation with the investigation. CNBC identified the other party in that reported relationship as businesswoman Alice Huang and said she has worked for Megaspeed, which CNBC described as a Chinese company and an Nvidia customer. WIRED described Megaspeed as a Singapore-based AI company where Alice Huang previously held a senior position. The Guardian called her the head of the Singapore-based datacentre firm Megaspeed and said Huang has denied any knowledge that she allegedly worked for the Chinese government.
CNBC said that late Wednesday, The New York Times reported a separate affair with Kimberly Powell, vice president of health care at Nvidia. WIRED said the Times reported on Nov. 11 that Huang was also alleged to have been involved with someone who reported to him at the company. A source familiar with the matter told WIRED that the reported involvement with a subordinate, together with Huang's commercial ties to Megaspeed, probably weighed more heavily on the board than the espionage allegations. The Guardian, also citing the Times, named Powell and said the board met late Wednesday to discuss the chief executive's future. The Guardian, citing Reuters, also reported a third alleged relationship with another Nvidia employee; Reuters, the newspaper said, did not name that person.
The official company statement does not mention the investigation or the published reports about Huang's personal life. Metro Puerto Rico described the resignation as coming amid a serious reputational crisis after those reports. The Guardian said Huang's departure removes a senior Silicon Valley figure at a moment when the United States and China are in a sharp contest over artificial intelligence.
Where the sources differ
The official Nvidia announcement is dated Nov. 12 and presents the resignation as effective immediately; Metro Puerto Rico, citing EFE, reports the same timing and the same interim appointments. Valuations differ by outlet and moment: CNBC described the company Huang built as a $4 trillion firm, WIRED dated the first crossing of $4 trillion to the summer of 2025, and The Guardian put the company at about $3.9 trillion after Thursday morning's drop. On the share move, Metro Puerto Rico reported a decline of about 12% before the open, while The Guardian reported a 13% drop at the open and a 7% decline in morning trading after a partial rebound. CNBC described Megaspeed as a Chinese company and Nvidia customer, while WIRED and The Guardian described it as Singapore-based. CNBC, The Guardian and WIRED all point to The New York Times for the reported relationship with a subordinate; only CNBC and The Guardian name Kimberly Powell in these accounts. Only The Guardian, citing Reuters, reported a third alleged relationship. The company statement gives no reason for the resignation; WIRED, CNBC, The Guardian and Metro Puerto Rico supply the investigation and affair reporting that preceded it. Only The Guardian reported Trump's social-media message about Tim Cook and the comments from analysts Ives and Wilson.
What the reports do not say
The official announcement does not state why Huang resigned, whether the internal investigation has ended, or who will be the permanent CEO. None of the cited reports says that Nvidia trade secrets or U.S. national-security information were confirmed to have been compromised, and the Chinese government, as reported by WIRED, has denied that Alice Huang was a spy. No source in this account describes a Puerto Rico facility, contract or local business impact. The share-price figures are the outlets' figures at the times they described, not a closing price confirmed here.
Sources
Every link below was opened and checked when this story was published. Official means a government body, agency or the organization itself; Reporting means a news outlet.
- Official NVIDIA Announces CEO Transition
- Reporting Jensen Huang Resigns as Nvidia CEO
- Reporting Nvidia live updates: Jensen Huang had ‘intimate relationship’ with second employee, Reuters reports
- Reporting Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO after alleged affairs
- Reporting Jensen Huang renuncia como director ejecutivo de Nvidia en medio de crisis por escándalo personal
How we checked this
Nvidia announced the resignation, the interim appointment of Kress and Jones's new role as the first board chair. WIRED, CNBC, The Guardian and Metro Puerto Rico described the investigation, the earlier news reports and the market reaction. The leadership facts above follow the company statement; the background on why the resignation came this week follows those news organizations, each of which was opened and checked before publication.
Compiled by the PuertoRico.com News Desk from the reports and statements listed above, and checked against them before publishing. It does not include original interviews. Spot an error? Email support@puertorico.com with a link to this story.
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