Kress Runs Nvidia as Board Weighs Permanent Successor to Huang

Nvidia's chief financial officer, Colette Kress, is running the company on an interim basis after co-founder Jensen Huang resigned Thursday, according to BBC News. Huang stepped down over reports of extramarital affairs, one of which was with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy, the BBC reported. The board must now decide whether Kress keeps the job or whether Nvidia looks elsewhere for the engineer who built the world's dominant AI chip company over more than three decades.

What is Kress's role right now?

Kress has been Nvidia's chief financial officer and executive vice-president for more than 30 years in the tech industry, with earlier senior stints at Cisco and Microsoft, according to the BBC. She has "fronted every earnings call" alongside Huang, Josh Gilbert, an analyst at investment firm eToro, told the BBC, calling her a "familiar and trusted voice for the market at a time when it badly needs one."

That market-facing credibility is the mechanism keeping her in the interim seat: investors already know her voice from quarterly results, and Nvidia's stock needs continuity while the board works through a leadership question it did not expect to face this year. Gilbert cautioned, however, that doing the job permanently "could be a different story," since Nvidia is known for its engineering edge and the board could still prefer someone with a technical background in the chair, per the BBC.

Could an Nvidia engineer get the permanent job?

Two internal names are circulating as potential permanent chief executives, the BBC reported. One is Chris Malachowsky, who co-founded Nvidia alongside Huang and Curtis Priem and is described by the BBC as the only executive who shares Huang's level of seniority. Malachowsky has been central to developing the company's computing technology since its founding.

The other is Ian Buck, who oversees Nvidia's high-performance computing business and was among the early engineers who pushed graphics processors into uses beyond video games, according to the BBC. Charu Chanana, an investment strategist at Saxo, told the BBC that Buck "could protect Nvidia's technological edge, but his ability to manage the wider commercial relationships and geopolitical challenges would face scrutiny." Nvidia's processors are currently regarded as the industry standard for AI development, the BBC noted.

Huang's children also hold executive positions at Nvidia, but the BBC described them as relatively young and inexperienced, which narrows their standing as near-term succession candidates.

Is Nvidia likely to hire from outside the company?

Jun Bei Liu, founder and lead portfolio manager at Ten Cap, told the BBC that Nvidia is likely to favor an internal appointment first but could look externally for a more permanent replacement later. Several outside tech executives have already been floated by analysts, per the BBC's reporting.

Arm's chief executive, Rene Haas, was named in the BBC's own headline image caption as a possible successor alongside Kress and Malachowsky, reflecting how closely Arm's chip-design business is tied to Nvidia's technology roadmap.

Why did President Trump name Tim Cook?

U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Apple's former chief executive, Tim Cook, as a possible replacement, writing online that Huang "has done a fantastic job" before his resignation, according to the BBC. The suggestion places a veteran consumer-hardware executive into a conversation otherwise dominated by chip engineers and Nvidia insiders, underscoring how unsettled the succession question remains barely days after Huang's exit.

What happens next at Nvidia?

The board has not set a public timeline for naming a permanent chief executive, based on available reporting. Several dynamics will determine how quickly that changes.

What to watch:

• Whether Nvidia's board issues a formal statement on succession timing or process.
• Whether Kress addresses her own candidacy on Nvidia's next earnings call, where she has historically appeared alongside Huang.
• Whether Malachowsky or Buck receives an expanded title or operational mandate signaling internal favoritism.
• Whether Arm's Rene Haas or any other outside executive has direct contact with Nvidia's board.
• Whether President Trump's public comment on Tim Cook draws a response from Apple or Nvidia.

For now, Kress holds the title in practice if not permanently, giving Nvidia a known quantity in front of investors while directors weigh whether the next chief executive should come from inside the company that built the modern AI chip market, or from outside it entirely.

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