Jensen Huang has resigned as president, chief executive and director of Nvidia, ending a 33-year run at the company he co-founded, after days of scrutiny over his personal conduct and possible national security risks. Chief financial officer Colette Kress will lead the company on an interim basis.

Nvidia announced the change in a regulatory filing and press release. Huang’s resignation took effect immediately, and the announcement gave no severance or post-departure role. Harvey Jones, a director since 1993 and former chief executive of Synopsys, becomes the company’s first-ever chair of the board. Kress, chief financial officer since September 2013, keeps that role until a permanent chief executive is named, and the board is searching internally and externally. Jones said: “The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team,” and expects operations to continue “without interruption.” Nvidia said Huang’s “contributions to NVIDIA are profound.” It did not give a reason for the departure.

The background, as reported by outlets rather than confirmed by Nvidia, is a chain of allegations. Huang admitted on Sunday to being unfaithful to his wife and apologised. Reports said US officials believed one relationship was with a former executive of Megaspeed, a Singapore cloud company and Nvidia customer, who is suspected of working for Chinese intelligence; China has called the claim unsubstantiated. The New York Times separately reported a relationship with a senior employee who reported to him. Al Jazeera noted there is no established evidence that Huang knowingly assisted Beijing or that company secrets were compromised.

Markets reacted sharply. Shares fell as much as 13% at the open, according to Yahoo Finance, and more than 14% at one point, according to Al Jazeera, before paring losses. Nvidia’s market value dropped below $4 trillion and it slipped to third place behind Apple and Microsoft. Oppenheimer downgraded the stock and removed its price target, citing a risk of a “brain drain,” while Bernstein kept a Market Perform rating with a $200 target. Wedbush’s Dan Ives cut his target to $225 while still expecting chip demand to hold. Stifel’s Ruben Roy said how the transition is handled will matter more than whether it happens. Neocloud stocks such as CoreWeave and Nebius were hit hardest, Yahoo Finance said, reflecting how many AI companies are tied to Nvidia. Yahoo counts about $530 billion in Nvidia commitments and guarantees, including a pledge of up to $10 billion to Anthropic, which is preparing to list.

The succession race is open. Names discussed include Kress, Ian Buck, Arm’s Rene Haas, AMD’s Lisa Su and Micron’s Sanjay Mehrotra, according to Al Jazeera. President Donald Trump suggested Apple’s former chief executive Tim Cook, though there is no sign Cook is interested. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons asked the administration to preserve records related to Nvidia, with a response requested by next Tuesday.

The next test comes on Tuesday, November 17, when Nvidia reports results for its fiscal third quarter at about 1:20 pm Pacific time. This article is for information only and is not investment advice.