Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns amid scandal and market turmoil

The sudden fall of a founder

Jensen Huang, the founder and long-time face of Nvidia, resigned as CEO on Thursday. This marks the end of a 33-year era for the company, which began with Huang co-founding the firm at a Denny’s. He also stepped down from the board of directors effective immediately.

The transition comes after a rapid two-week collapse in Huang's standing. Reports emerged regarding his ties to a Chinese intelligence asset and an internal investigation into personal relationships with employees. These events triggered a swift response from the board and a sharp reaction from the stock market.

As AI: Reset to Zero reported, the market's reaction was immediate and severe. Nvidia's market value dropped below $4 trillion for the first time since 2025, losing as much as $601 billion in a single morning. At least seven Wall Street firms downgraded the company within a week of the announcement.

Who is running the company now

Colette Kress has been appointed as the interim CEO while maintaining her role as Chief Financial Officer. Kress has held the CFO position since 2013 and has experience at major tech firms like Cisco and Microsoft. She is one of the few leaders who regularly speaks on Nvidia's earnings calls.

Inside the company, Kress has often acted as a financial stabilizer. She reportedly pushed back on a proposed $250 billion credit backstop for OpenAI’s data centers, eventually securing a smaller $100 billion guarantee. Her role will be to manage the company's risk and ensure financial stability during this transition.

The board is also undergoing a shift in leadership. Harvey Jones, who has served on the board since the company's founding in 1993, will become the first-ever chair. This move follows a governance assessment that ranked the board poorly, highlighting the need for more structured oversight.

The search for a successor

Nvidia was built around Huang, who managed about 60 direct reports and intentionally left no formal succession plan. This leaves the company with a short list of internal candidates and a long list of external possibilities. The board must find a leader who can balance engineering, sales, and global diplomacy.

Internal candidates include Ian Buck, who built the CUDA platform, and Jonah Alben, who runs GPU engineering. While both are respected engineers, neither has experience managing a company of Nvidia's massive scale. The board is also looking at external figures like Lisa Su of AMD or hardware chiefs from Apple.

The job description for the next CEO is uniquely difficult. The company needs a leader capable of making 'founder-style' bets while maintaining professional management. The next person must navigate a market that is still in flux and a supply chain that is deeply intertwined with global politics.

The end of the 'Jensen put'

Huang was often viewed as the 'kingmaker' of the AI industry because he financed the people who bought his chips. Nvidia's dealmaking totaled $140 billion in just two months this year, including significant credit guarantees. Investors now fear that this level of financial backing may evaporate with Huang's exit.

Many companies in the AI space relied on what some called the 'Nvidia put'—the assumption that Nvidia would always step in to provide credit support. For example, Nvidia committed up to $105 billion in credit support for OpenAI’s Ohio data center campus. These deals are now under scrutiny as the company faces a leadership vacuum.

While existing contracts for companies like Safe Superintelligence and Thinking Machines remain binding, new deals are in jeopardy. Some cloud executives expect Nvidia's dealmaking to halt until the leadership uproar is resolved. This shift could force customers to look for alternative financing and hardware from competitors like Google and AMD.

What comes next for the market

Despite the leadership shake-up, Nvidia's core business remains on relative autopilot for the immediate future. The company's GPU and rack systems are sold out two to three years in advance, and the roadmap for upcoming products like Rubin and Feynman is already set. Kress will face her first major test during the third-quarter earnings call on November 17.

The long-term effects of the 'Mega-Blip' will likely play out over weeks and months. Huang has agreed to testify before three House committees behind closed doors before Thanksgiving. This could lead to tougher chip export rules and further scrutiny of the company's relationship with China.

History suggests that the time of greatest concern is when a company is at its peak. While Nvidia is currently navigating a leadership crisis, the underlying demand for AI hardware remains high. The industry will now have to watch how the new leadership manages the transition from a founder-led visionary model to a corporate governance model.