Nvidia Names Colette Kress Interim CEO After Huang Resigns Over Affair

Nvidia's board named Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress interim CEO this week after Jensen Huang resigned Thursday, a move that left the open-source AI community asking whether the company's biggest advocate for open-weight models just lost his seat at the table, according to TechCrunch and HTT News.

Why Did Huang Step Down?

Huang resigned after admitting to an affair with an alleged Chinese spy, a disclosure that raised national-security questions and renewed scrutiny of his past lobbying for softer U.S. export controls on chips sold to China, TechCrunch reported.

Who Is Running Nvidia Now?

Nvidia's board turned to Kress, the company's longtime CFO, to serve as interim chief executive while the board searches for a permanent successor, HTT News reported. TechCrunch noted it remains unclear how Kress will approach the policy and partnership decisions Huang had driven personally.

What Happens to the Hugging Face Deal?

Nvidia has not finalized its $13 billion agreement to acquire open-source platform Hugging Face, according to TechCrunch. Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue said in a post on X that his company would keep fighting for open source regardless of what happens next at Nvidia, TechCrunch reported.

Will Nemotron and Open-Weight Models Continue?

Huang had pushed development of Nvidia's Nemotron family of open-weight models, built for agentic AI and reasoning tasks that compete with closed frontier systems, TechCrunch reported. One Nvidia insider told the outlet they do not expect the leadership change to affect Nemotron's development. Huang also backed open-model-friendly startups including Reflection AI and Thinking Machines Lab, and Nvidia separately agreed to pay $6 billion for a non-exclusive license to AI coding startup Poolside's technology, according to TechCrunch.

What Did Huang Argue in Washington?

Huang had become one of the most visible opponents of U.S. efforts to restrict open-weight AI, arguing the approach aided safety, innovation, and sovereignty, TechCrunch reported. Earlier this year he organized an open letter — signed by 25 companies including Microsoft, Meta, IBM, and Palantir — urging Washington not to over-restrict open-weight models, many of which originate in China, according to TechCrunch. The debate was fueled by allegations that Chinese AI labs stole intellectual property from U.S. rivals Anthropic and OpenAI, both of which have pressed Washington for stronger protections, TechCrunch reported. Closed-model companies including Anthropic and OpenAI have separately pushed for tighter restrictions on advanced models on safety grounds, according to the outlet.

Researcher Nathan Lambert wrote on X that Huang's absence "would be very very bad for the open model cause in the US," a post TechCrunch cited as representative of concern inside the open-source AI community.

What Are the Dollar Figures Behind Nvidia's Open-Source Bets?

• $13 billion: Nvidia's pending, unfinished deal to acquire Hugging Face, per TechCrunch.
• $6 billion: Nvidia's agreed payment for a non-exclusive license to Poolside's AI coding technology, per TechCrunch.
• 25: companies that signed Huang's open letter opposing new restrictions on open-weight AI models, per TechCrunch.

Nvidia had not said, as of the TechCrunch report, how Kress intends to handle the Hugging Face acquisition or the broader open-source strategy Huang built.