Colette Kress takes the helm at Nvidia as shares edge up before the bell, still on course for their longest weekly losing streak since 2012
Nvidia's interim chief executive starts her first full trading day in charge with a stock that has lost about 11% this week, an earnings report on Tuesday and a board searching inside and outside the company for a permanent leader.
Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nvdia_Endeavor_Grand_Opening_entry_lawn.jpg
For the first time since Nvidia was founded in 1993, the company opens a trading day with someone other than Jensen Huang running it. Colette Kress, the chipmaker's chief financial officer since 2013, took over as interim chief executive on Thursday after Huang resigned, and the stock is trying to steady before Friday's open.
Nvidia shares were up about 1.8% in premarket trading early Friday, according to Reuters, and Investing.com put the gain at 2.3%. Even with a bounce, Reuters reported that the shares are on course for their longest streak of weekly losses since October 2012, having lost around 11% this week through Thursday.
How Thursday played out
Nvidia's board said Thursday that Huang had resigned as president, chief executive and a board member, effective immediately. The stock fell as much as 16% during the session, according to NBC News, before recovering most of that drop to close down 4.3%, a figure Reuters and CNA also reported. NBC News said Nvidia's market value briefly slipped below $4 trillion in early trading, its first time under that level since 2025, and ended the day just above it.
The resignation followed a run of reports about Huang's personal conduct. The Financial Times and The New York Times reported a relationship with a businesswoman whom U.S. authorities suspect of spying for China, an allegation Beijing has denied, and The New York Times later reported a second relationship with an executive who reported to Huang. Huang acknowledged on Sunday that he had been unfaithful to his wife. Nvidia has framed the change as a leadership transition and has not commented on the details of the reports.
Who is running Nvidia now
Kress keeps the CFO job while serving as interim CEO until the board names a permanent successor, the company said. Before Nvidia she spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at technology companies including Cisco and Microsoft. Reuters reported that Kress and longtime Nvidia engineer Ian Buck had been seen by investors and analysts as the leading internal candidates even before Thursday.
The board also named Harvey C. Jones, a longtime director and former chief executive of chip-design software company Synopsys, as its first-ever chair. Reuters reported that Huang, Nvidia's fourth-largest shareholder with a 3.61% stake, is also leaving the board.
"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." - Colette Kress, in an email to Nvidia employees reported by CNBC and Reuters
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Why the calendar matters more than usual
Nvidia said it will report results for its fiscal third quarter on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at about 1:20 p.m. Pacific time, as previously scheduled, with the earnings call at 2 p.m. Pacific (5 p.m. Eastern). The written CFO commentary that normally accompanies the report comes from Kress, which means the person now running the company will also be the one walking Wall Street through the numbers. A day later, on Nov. 18 at 9 a.m. Pacific, Kress has scheduled a company-wide meeting for employees, according to her memo.
Investors will be listening for two things: whether demand and supply commitments to Nvidia's largest customers are unchanged, and whether the leadership change touches the company's product roadmap. The board said Thursday it expects operations, customer commitments and the roadmap "to continue without interruption."
The valuation backdrop
The slide has changed how the stock is priced. Reuters reported that after the drop from its Oct. 6 record high, Nvidia trades at about 12 times expected earnings, its lowest valuation since 2012. NBC News estimated that about $500 billion of market value was erased during the week's reports, and Investing.com said the better part of $1 trillion has been lost this month alone.
The ripple across the AI trade
Thursday's session showed investors sorting winners and losers rather than selling everything. Advanced Micro Devices rose 5.9% and Broadcom gained 5.5%, according to Reuters, as traders weighed whether rivals could pick up share. Both dipped in premarket trading Friday, according to Investing.com. Alibaba fell 7.1% in U.S. trading Thursday, Reuters reported, as Chinese tech firms that rely on Nvidia chips came under pressure. JPMorgan analysts said, as quoted by NBC News, that the risk of more restrictive guidelines on chip shipments into China has risen given the national security concerns.
Index futures were close to flat early Friday. Benzinga had S&P 500 futures up about 0.07% and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.04% to 0.12%, while FXStreet showed slightly deeper losses earlier in European hours. On Thursday, the Dow fell 0.36% to 52,297.09, the S&P 500 dropped 0.35% to 7,592.40 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.39% to 25,366.09, according to Reuters.
What to watch today
The October producer price index is due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, followed by a busy slate of Federal Reserve speakers. For Nvidia specifically, any further word from the board on the CEO search, or any update on the company's China-related exposure, could move the stock before Tuesday's report. With a new leader, a new board chair and earnings four days away, Friday's trading is the first real read on how investors view Nvidia under Kress.
