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Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO

Nvidia says Jensen Huang has resigned with immediate effect, and CFO Colette Kress is leading the company on an interim basis.

By Nova 5 min read

Key takeaways

  • Nvidia says Jensen Huang resigned on 12.11.2026 as President, CEO and board member, effective immediately.
  • CFO Colette Kress is interim CEO and remains CFO, while Harvey C. Jones becomes the board's first Chair.
  • According to CNBC, the shares were down 10,5 % premarket at 15:05 Luxembourg time.
  • Luxembourg's MeluXina-AI runs on 1.008 Nvidia GPUs, and Nvidia says customer commitments continue without interruption.
On this page
  1. What Nvidia has officially announced
  2. Background: reports and allegations
  3. Market reaction
  4. What it means for Europe and Luxembourg
  5. What happens next at Nvidia

Jensen Huang is no longer running Nvidia. The chipmaker's board said on 12.11.2026 at 14:48 Luxembourg time that Huang had resigned as President, Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board, effective immediately. Chief financial officer Colette Kress takes over as interim CEO and remains CFO. Harvey C. Jones becomes the first Chair in the board's history.

What Nvidia has officially announced

The release on GlobeNewswire also appears in Nvidia's official newsroom and was filed as an exhibit to a Form 8-K with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. According to the 8-K, the board accepted the resignation on 11.11.2026. The key points:

  • Huang gives up all three roles at once: President, CEO and board seat.
  • Colette Kress, Executive Vice President and CFO since September 2013, leads the company as interim CEO until a permanent successor is named. The 8-K gives her age as 59.
  • The board is starting a search for a permanent CEO and will consider internal and external candidates. Nvidia names no one.
  • Harvey C. Jones, 73, has served on the board since 1993, according to the 8-K. He was previously CEO and Executive Chairman of the chip design software company Synopsys.
  • Results for the third quarter of fiscal 2027 remain scheduled for 17.11.2026 at around 22:20 Luxembourg time, followed by the earnings call at 23:00.

Jones says in the release: "The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team, and we expect the company's operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption." Kress says she will build on the foundation Huang created over 33 years. The release contains no quote from Huang himself and gives no reason for his departure.

Background: reports and allegations

The resignation follows a week of reporting on Huang's private life. The points below are reports and allegations, not established facts.

According to CNBC and WIRED, The New York Times and the Financial Times reported that Huang had an affair with a businesswoman whom US intelligence officials believe works for China's Ministry of State Security. The reports say she held a senior position at Megaspeed, a Singapore based cloud provider and Nvidia customer. The Chinese government has rejected all claims that she was a spy, WIRED reports.

On 08.11.2026 Huang apologised to staff for having been unfaithful to his wife, in an email published by CNBC. The same day the board announced an independent investigation and said it had no reason to believe that national security or Nvidia secrets had been compromised. On 10.11.2026 the independent directors retained former acting US Attorney Joon H. Kim and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. According to CNBC, Huang denied compromising national security or Nvidia secrets.

On 11.11.2026, The New York Times reported a further relationship, this time with an executive who reported directly to Huang, according to The Verge and WIRED. The Verge and AP say the board met overnight after that report. Nvidia's release does not address any of these reports.

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Market reaction

The shares fell sharply before the open. CNBC reported the stock down 10,5 % in premarket trading as of 9:05 a.m. Eastern time, which is 15:05 Luxembourg time. AP also reported a 10 % premarket fall. According to CNBC, Bernstein analysts halved their price target from 400 to 200 US dollars. At the open at 15:30 Luxembourg time the shares fell 13 %, according to AP, and CNBC also reported a 13 % drop as of about 15:35 Luxembourg time on 12.11.2026.

What it means for Europe and Luxembourg

Nvidia supplies most of the accelerators on which Europe's AI infrastructure is being built. At GTC Paris on 11.06.2025 the company announced a set of European projects, including a Mistral AI cloud platform with 18.000 Grace Blackwell systems in its first phase and an industrial AI cloud in Germany with 10.000 Blackwell GPUs.

Luxembourg also builds directly on Nvidia. According to the EuroHPC JU, the MeluXina-AI supercomputer at the heart of the Luxembourg AI Factory consists of 252 Dell servers with liquid cooled NVIDIA GB200 NVL4 systems, 1.008 GPUs in total, split between Bissen and Bettembourg. The contract with integrator E4 was signed on 22.07.2026 with a budget of 80 Mio. EUR, and installation was due to begin in autumn 2026. LuxProvide operates the system.

For customers in Luxembourg nothing measurable changes for now: contracts run through integrators and manufacturers, and Nvidia states explicitly that customer commitments and the product roadmap will continue without interruption. Whether that holds will become clearer with the results on 17.11.2026 and the choice of a new CEO. Companies planning AI projects on Nvidia hardware should keep an eye on their partners' delivery commitments.

What happens next at Nvidia

Nvidia loses its founder and the best known face of the AI industry in the middle of an ongoing investigation. The official release is brief and gives no reasons. The picture should become clearer, at the earliest, with the results on 17.11.2026 and the outcome of the investigation.

Sources

Every price and fact above was checked against these pages on the date shown.

  1. [1] NVIDIA Announces CEO Transition (GlobeNewswire) accessed 2026-11-12
  2. [2] NVIDIA Form 8-K, 12.11.2026 (SEC EDGAR) accessed 2026-11-12
  3. [3] NVIDIA Newsroom: NVIDIA Announces CEO Transition accessed 2026-11-12
  4. [4] Statement from NVIDIA Board of Directors (08.11.2026) accessed 2026-11-12
  5. [5] Statement from the Independent Members of the NVIDIA Board (10.11.2026) accessed 2026-11-12
  6. [6] CNBC: Nvidia stock falls 10% as CEO Jensen Huang announces resignation accessed 2026-11-12
  7. [7] CNBC: Nvidia live updates, CEO Jensen Huang resigns accessed 2026-11-12
  8. [8] CNBC: Read Huang's email to his staff and statement from Nvidia's board accessed 2026-11-12
  9. [9] AP: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns after his affair raises national security concerns accessed 2026-11-12
  10. [10] The Verge: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigns amid spy, affair scandals accessed 2026-11-12
  11. [11] WIRED: Jensen Huang Resigns as Nvidia CEO accessed 2026-11-12
  12. [12] NVIDIA: Europe Builds AI Infrastructure With NVIDIA (GTC Paris, 11.06.2025) accessed 2026-11-12
  13. [13] EuroHPC JU signs contract for MeluXina-AI (22.07.2026) accessed 2026-11-12
  14. [14] AP: Nvidia shares plunge 13% at open after CEO Jensen Huang resigns accessed 2026-11-12
Topics NvidiaJensen HuangColette KressKI-InfrastrukturMeluXina-AI