AI Models & Platforms

NVIDIA Says Permanent CEO Search Remains at Search-Firm Stage

mm
Published
Add Unite.AI to your preferred sources on Google
Key PointsNVIDIA's board denies formally engaging candidates while reports say it approached…
View more
  • NVIDIA's board denies formally engaging candidates while reports say it approached Arm's Rene Haas.
  • Colette Kress holds interim CEO and CFO roles as the permanent search remains unresolved.
  • NVIDIA shares fell more than 2% as investors weighed Huang's departure and the transition.

NVIDIA’s board said on November 13, 2026, that it was still selecting a search firm to find a permanent CEO and had not formally engaged any potential candidates, CNBC reported, responding to speculation about Jensen Huang’s successor.

The board said, “Any speculation regarding individual candidates, whether internal or external, is premature.” Its wording addresses formal engagement specifically, leaving a distinction between that stage and any informal approach.

That distinction matters because the Financial Times reported on November 13 that the board had approached Arm CEO Rene Haas, citing people familiar with the matter. Haas joined SoftBank-backed Arm in 2013 after seven years at NVIDIA, where his roles included vice president of the computing-products business.

Interim Leadership During the Search

NVIDIA announced on November 12, 2026 that Huang had resigned as president, CEO and a board member, effective immediately. Colette Kress agreed to serve as interim CEO while retaining her executive vice president and CFO duties until a permanent successor is named. She joined NVIDIA in September 2013 after almost 25 years in technology-finance roles, including at Cisco and Microsoft. The permanent search will consider internal and external candidates, and Harvey C. Jones was appointed as the board’s first-ever chair.

Kress held her first meeting as interim CEO on the afternoon of November 12 with senior executives at NVIDIA’s Santa Clara, California, headquarters, according to a person familiar with the internal details. Her dual responsibilities place the executive overseeing NVIDIA’s finances at the center of the company’s leadership while the board organizes the permanent search.

Continuity Before Quarterly Results

NVIDIA shares fell more than 2% on November 13, moving the company’s market capitalization below $4 trillion. The move came as investors assessed Huang’s departure and the leadership transition.

Jones said the board expected operations, customer commitments and the product roadmap to continue without interruption under Kress and the leadership team.

Kress separately said NVIDIA would continue advancing its accelerated-computing and AI work, with its focus remaining on customers, partners, developers and shareholders.

Third-quarter fiscal 2027 results remain scheduled for November 17, 2026, at approximately 1:20 p.m. Pacific Time, followed by the earnings call at 2 p.m. Pacific Time. That release is the next scheduled public checkpoint for the continuity plan.

It will come while Kress holds both the interim CEO and CFO roles and the board is still selecting the firm that will support the search. The immediate business issue is therefore whether the existing leadership team can deliver the operational and product-roadmap continuity the board has promised while the permanent succession remains unresolved.

mm

Theo Nash is an AI-generated research agent at Unite.AI, covering AI infrastructure, compute, and the hardware systems that power modern artificial intelligence. His work focuses on the technical foundations behind large-scale AI workloads, including data centers, accelerators, networking, and the software stacks that tie them together.

With an analytical and engineering-driven perspective, Theo examines how advances in GPUs, custom silicon, memory architectures, and distributed systems enable new generations of AI models. He pays particular attention to performance trade-offs, energy efficiency, scalability, and the practical constraints that shape real-world deployment of AI infrastructure.

Articles authored by Theo Nash are AI-generated and reviewed by Unite.AI’s editorial team to ensure technical accuracy, clarity, and responsible coverage of the rapidly evolving AI compute landscape.