Nvidia co-founder and longtime CEO Jensen Huang has unexpectedly stepped down as president, CEO and board member of the company. CFO Colette Kress has been named interim CEO, but US President Donald Trump has already named his favorite for the position — former Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Nvidia co-founder and longtime CEO Jensen Huang has unexpectedly stepped down as president, CEO and board member of the company. CFO Colette Kress has been named interim CEO, but US President Donald Trump has already named his favorite for the position — former Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Nvidia itself announced the official personnel changes , and the details of the high-profile dismissal and the US president's reaction were published by Reuters.
The decision to resign the 63-year-old Huang took effect immediately. According to media reports, the leader's move is related to publications about his affair with a Chinese businesswoman, whom American intelligence agencies suspect of spying for Beijing.
Against the backdrop of this news, US President Donald Trump took to social media to propose appointing Tim Cook, who left the position of CEO of Apple in September 2026 after 15 years of work and moved to the role of executive chairman of the company, as the new head of the chip manufacturer.
"Now that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who did a fantastic job, has stepped down, there is only one person who can take his place - Tim Cook of Apple. Legend replaces legend!" Trump wrote.
Meanwhile, Nvidia's board has already begun a search for a permanent successor from internal and external candidates. Until his term ends, Colette Kress will serve as CEO, combining this role with her current position as CFO (she has been with the company since 2013, and before that, she held finance positions at Cisco and Microsoft for 25 years). In addition, venture capitalist and former Synopsys CEO Harvey S. Jones was appointed Nvidia's first-ever chairman.
“NVIDIA’s strength has always been its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation that Jensen has built over the past 33 years. We will continue to advance the directions that have made NVIDIA a leader in accelerated computing and artificial intelligence,” said Colette Kress in a statement.
Despite the abrupt change in management, the company assures that operations and product roadmap will not change.
Earlier, the owner of X (Twitter), Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, said that he would be "honored" to hire Jensen Huang if he were fired from Nvidia.
