Nvidia's Kress Takes Interim CEO Seat With $6.9B Mellanox Legacy

Nvidia named Colette Kress interim CEO on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026, after Jensen Huang resigned following 33 years running the company he founded. Kress keeps her roles as executive vice president and chief financial officer while she holds the top seat — and every source on the story describes the appointment as interim, nothing more.

Newly named board chair Harvey Jones said the board has full confidence in Kress and the leadership team, and that it expects operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap to continue without interruption. In plain terms, the board wants one message to reach customers and suppliers: the chip pipeline doesn't change this quarter.

The timing is awkward. Engadget reports the departure came days after the board said it would investigate Huang, and that Nvidia had no succession plan in place before the revelations. CNBC separately reported that Joon Kim of Wachtell is leading the investigation.

Who is Colette Kress?

Kress joined Nvidia in September 2013, according to the company's official biography. Her 13-year tenure as finance chief spans the company's shift from graphics-card maker to dominant AI computing supplier. When she joined, Nvidia booked $4.28 billion in annual revenue; in fiscal 2026 it recorded a record $215.9 billion — roughly a 50-fold increase over her tenure.

Before Nvidia, she spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at Texas Instruments, Microsoft and Cisco. At Microsoft she worked 13 years, including four as CFO of the Server and Tools division. At Cisco she spent three years as senior vice president and CFO of Business Technology and Operations Finance. She holds a B.Sc. in finance from the University of Arizona and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

Huang recruited her personally, sketching his vision on a whiteboard, per Engadget and CTech. Her two sons, then eight and ten, knew Nvidia from gaming and helped tip the decision.

What does the $6.9B Mellanox deal change?

CTech reported Friday that Kress supported the 2020 acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, which Nvidia bought for $6.9 billion after a fierce bidding contest with Intel. The deal handed Nvidia leading networking technology and a major Israeli R&D presence — roughly 3,200 employees, about 12% of the global workforce at the time.

Kress has explained that pairing Nvidia computing with Mellanox networking let the company build almost entire data centers for customers. That shift from components to systems is one reason the AI boom lifted revenue so sharply.

The record supports a narrower claim than CTech's headline suggests. Her official biography says nothing about Israel, and no source states she negotiated, led or approved the deal. Kress herself said Israel was an "integral part of my daily schedule," with meetings with Israeli executives typically opening her working day before she moved on to California.

What did she do behind the scenes?

CTech reports Kress served as a counterweight to Huang, sometimes challenging his risk appetite. People familiar with the matter quoted by Reuters said Kress and her team clashed with Huang and the sales organization over large financing commitments, including investments in OpenAI and in AI infrastructure companies such as Lambda.

Per that reporting, one proposed $250 billion plan to support an OpenAI data center project in Ohio ended up cut to $120 billion. Nvidia has not confirmed those figures, and they come from anonymous sources.

If accurate, the episode signals what a finance-background interim chief might do differently: tighter conditions on vendor financing, and a slower pace of ecosystem investments while the board searches for a permanent leader. Both outcomes would ripple through AI start-ups counting on Nvidia capital.

What has Kress said?

In the transition announcement, Kress said Nvidia's "strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years." She added: "Our focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders." To employees, in internal emails published by The Verge, she wrote: "I believe deeply in this company and in its future."

What happens next?

Nvidia reports earnings on Nov. 17, and a CFO-turned-interim-CEO presenting both numbers and strategy is an unusual setup. CTech says some investors doubt a finance executive can sustain the technological ambition behind the AI boom; the counterargument is that execution is a CFO's home turf.

Scrutiny will extend beyond earnings. Huang agreed to testify before Congress, with the House aiming for a hearing before Thanksgiving, and House Foreign Affairs chair Brian Mast of Florida said he wasn't ruling out public hearings for others. CTech also notes questions raised about Nvidia's oversight of chip sales involving Chinese military-linked institutions and Southeast Asian intermediaries. No finding of wrongdoing by Kress appears in any source reviewed.

The board says it will weigh both internal and external candidates for the permanent job. Until then, developers and customers should plan as if the roadmap holds — and keep contracts flexible.