Jensen Huang has resigned, and in his place is a familiar face for anyone that’s listened to one of Nvidia’s financial calls: it’s the company’s long-standing CFO, Colette Kress.

But you might be excused as a gamer for never hearing about her; an earnings call isn’t everybody’s cup of tea.

Colette Kress has been chief financial officer at Nvidia since 2013. That’s 13 years sat alongside Jensen in calls with investors and financial institutions to discuss how the company is doing. Kress has been in the role for the record highs of recent years, and the not-so-record lows of others, like the price plummets of ’25, ’21, and ’18.

Prior to her role at Nvidia, Kress was SVP and CFO at Cisco for a couple of years and Corporate VP at Microsoft for nearly five. She also worked at Texas Instruments—all the big hitters, then.

Generally, Kress has stayed out of any contentious issues with the company, only occassionally commenting on the big issues during earnings calls. Like when the RTX 30-series was out of stock everywhere thanks to cryptocurrency mining (the mining had an impact on the company’s financials in a slightly contentious way, too).

Or ceaseless comments on the increasing demand for AI datacentre build out. That’s of less interest to gamers, but what do you expect? Nvidia to talk about gaming GPUs in this day and age? It cannot be done.

In an email to employees in the wake of Jensen Huang’s departure, Kress reportedly said (via Hadas Gold on X):

“I believe deeply in this company and in its future. More than anything, I believe in each of you, in our customers and partners and in the vital role we play every day in the global economy.

“The Board, Estaff and I recognize that this has been an extraordinarily difficult period and I want you to know how grateful we are for your resilience, professionalism and continued dedication. Thank you.

“… We play a vital role in building the technology that is powering the AI revolution, and we have important work ahead of us. So let’s move forward together, with the same determination and commitment that have always defined this company.”

Kress also notes there will be a company meeting on November 18—the day after Nvidia’s next financial call, which Kress will have been preparing for in her CFO role, and the day of Jensen Huang’s meeting with US House leaders.

Kress will have been chosen for this interim CEO role in some part to steady the markets. It takes a long time to find and finalise a deal to secure a new full-time CEO, especially with a job opening as internationally as important as this one. So someone inside the company had to take the chalice for now. With Kress at the helm, Nvidia will be hoping investors won’t be quite as worried about the company’s financial future.

It’s the same playbook we saw when Intel ousted then-CEO Brian Krzanich over a consensual relationship he had with an employee, which was against company policy. Krzanich was replaced by Bob Swan as interim CEO, who actually took over as CEO at a later date, before Pat Gelsinger took over from him in 2021. Pat then retired in 2024.

Nvidia will likely look at this as a bit of a cautionary tale: you want stability and leadership, not a revolving door of top execs and no one steering the ship. If the board has any wits about it, it’ll be looking for a strong leader with a clear direction for the company and the will to deliver it.

President Donald Trump has come out in support of a man who only just managed to escape top corporate life at Apple: Tim Cook.

Meanwhile the China Select Committee in US Congress backs any leader that “makes national security its top priority.”

So, a true patriot that can also lead teams of top-class engineers and wants to fill the boots of a man that famously didn’t take breaks. That’ll be easy to find, I’m sure.