Chief financial officer Colette Kress will lead the chipmaker temporarily as its board searches for a permanent successor amid national-security scrutiny

Thunder Bay – International News Service – Jensen Huang has resigned as Nvidia’s president, chief executive and board member, ending a 33-year tenure at the company he co-founded and creating new uncertainty for a business central to the global artificial-intelligence industry.

Nvidia appointed longtime chief financial officer Colette Kress as interim CEO, effective immediately. The board said it will consider internal and external candidates for the permanent position. Harvey Jones was appointed Nvidia’s first independent board chair.

The company’s announcement did not give a reason for Huang’s departure. It came days after independent directors opened an investigation into reports that he had a relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed International who U.S. officials reportedly suspected of working for Chinese intelligence. She is not related to Jensen Huang.

Nvidia has said it has no reason to believe company secrets or U.S. national security were compromised. China has denied attempting to target the executive.

Singapore offered a more limited account of its own investigation. Its Home Affairs Ministry said Alice Huang was not investigated for espionage and that police found insufficient evidence to charge her over allegedly inaccurate declarations involving server shipments. Authorities nevertheless accused her of knowingly minimizing her role at Megaspeed, issued a warning and barred her from returning to Singapore.

U.S. lawmakers say they still want to question Jensen Huang about Nvidia’s safeguards against foreign espionage. His departure also raises commercial concerns because Nvidia’s processors underpin much of the world’s AI infrastructure and Huang served as the company’s chief strategist, dealmaker and political advocate.

Kress joined Nvidia in 2013 and previously worked at Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments. Nvidia said its operations, product plans and customer commitments would continue without interruption. Its next financial results remain scheduled for November 17.

Sources: Nvidia leadership announcement; Singapore Ministry of Home Affairs investigation statement;