Jensen Huang: Ex-Nvidia CEO Dismissed Colette Kress as ‘Reporting CFO’ and Called Her ‘Deer in Headlights’ Months Before His Ouster

Months before his departure from Nvidia, then-CEO Jensen Huang had sharply criticized the finance executive who has since been chosen to take over his position. Huang, 63, reportedly called Colette Kress “a deer in the headlights” directly to her face during a meeting in August with Nvidia’s senior finance executives, an insider told The Wall Street Journal.

At the time, Nvidia was exploring a plan to guarantee billions of dollars in loans to smaller cloud-computing and data-center firms that lacked the financial resources to buy its chips, hoping to secure their loyalty as long-term customers. Kress, 59, was trying to propose different ways to address the problem during the meeting.

Paying the Price

However, Huang repeatedly cut her off during the presentation, according to the source. The insider said Huang dismissed Kress as a “reporting CFO,” suggesting she lacked the ability to help him make high-level strategic decisions.

However, Kress, who joined Nvidia in 2013, has since been named interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent replacement.

Huang, who has been married to his wife, Lori, for more than four decades, stepped down on Thursday following reports of three alleged extramarital relationships.

On Sunday, he admitted to having an affair with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman suspected of working for Beijing. He was also reportedly involved with Nvidia’s vice president of health care, Kimberly Powell, and a third, unidentified woman who also worked at the artificial intelligence giant.

In a memo sent to employees on Thursday, Kress reportedly praised Huang’s role in building Nvidia and pledged to carry forward his legacy, promising to keep “building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years.”

Despite the earlier clash, Kress continued to support Huang and his strategy of investing heavily in AI startups and cloud-computing companies that subsequently purchase Nvidia chips. “We recognize the scale of this support, and we know some will call this circular financing. We see it differently,” she said in August, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“The equity returns on our invested capital will be excellent.”

Kress has previously described Huang as a “visionary” and credited his leadership as one of the reasons she joined Nvidia. In a 2018 interview at an awards ceremony, she also praised the company’s corporate culture as “essentially egoless,” as per the WSJ report.

Huang’s Business Acumen Praised

Although the reported affairs ultimately led to Huang’s ouster, his business acumen and technological vision have been credited with transforming Nvidia into a technology powerhouse. The company’s performance has become increasingly important to the U.S. economy, retirement savings and pension funds worldwide.

Huang founded Nvidia in 1993, and the company went public in 1999. It develops highly advanced processors used in artificial intelligence systems, with the recent AI boom driving a sharp rise in its stock price.

Huang’s alleged relationship with Powell could also have breached Nvidia’s code of conduct, which instructs employees to “avoid situations where our actions conflict,” including those involving “personal relationships.”

Two sources told The New York Times that Huang and Powell were filmed displaying affection at a hotel in San Jose, California, during an Nvidia conference in March.

It remains unclear when Huang’s affair with Alice Huang began. However, reports claim that she was already openly talking about her close ties to the Nvidia chief as early as June 2024.

U.S. intelligence officials circulated a memo this spring claiming that she was working as an asset for China’s Ministry of State Security. Beijing has denied the allegations.

Authorities in Taiwan and Singapore have also examined Huang’s alleged links to Chinese intelligence agencies. Huang has agreed to appear before Congress and testify sometime before Thanksgiving.