Before His Ouster, Jensen Huang Belittled the Executive Replacing Him

Nvidia’s abrupt leadership change places longtime finance chief Colette Kress in charge after Jensen Huang resigned following revelations of two affairs, one involving an employee and another a suspected Chinese spy. The account portrays tensions between the pair as the company’s aggressive expansion into financing its AI customers raised financial and strategic concerns. In an August meeting, Huang reportedly criticized Kress as unable to think strategically, even as he questioned whether his own dealmaking had gone too far. He described cloud providers’ moves toward alternative chips and Nvidia’s huge commitments to buy wafers and memory as mounting threats.

Kress had challenged plans to guarantee billions of dollars in financing for cloud firms and data-center developers, including ventures promoted by Huang’s son-in-law. She questioned how Nvidia would select deals, value guarantees and measure returns. In negotiations over a massive Ohio data center for OpenAI, she cut Nvidia’s proposed backing in half before the companies signed a smaller agreement. Nvidia later paused some financing commitments and strengthened executive and board review. The company’s support for customers could stimulate chip sales, but also expose it to losses if AI demand falters. As interim CEO, Kress must manage that risk, internal and federal investigations, and a search for a permanent successor, while leading a company that had grown to a $5.8 trillion valuation.