With the resignation of CEO Jensen Huang, NVIDIA faced a leadership vacuum and has now implemented a new management system. Cole Cress, who has been in charge of the company's finance and business strategy for 13 years, has been appointed as interim CEO, and Harvey Jones, who has been a member of the board since the company's early days, has been appointed as the first chairman. Both have begun efforts to stabilize the company by emphasizing confidence in its future to employees.
CNBC obtained and released emails sent by Cress, the interim CEO, and Jones, the chairman, to employees shortly after Huang's resignation. Jones first explained the message, and Cress soon followed up with a message to employees.
"I deeply believe in this company and its future," Cress thanked employees for their resilience, expertise, and dedication. She also stated that NVIDIA plays an important role in developing the technology that leads the AI revolution, and expressed her intention to continue with existing business operations. She plans to hold a meeting with all employees on the 18th to explain the future direction of the company.
Harvey Jones, the chairman, also evaluated him as a key figure in designing NVIDIA's growth and capital strategy, and expressed the board's full confidence in him. "The board is confident that Cole will fulfill the promises she made to shareholders, customers, partners, and employees," he said. He also announced the plan to review both internal and external candidates for the formal successor CEO.
Cole Cress, who is 59 years old this year, has served as CFO since joining NVIDIA in September 2013. She led the financial and investment strategies during the company's transformation from a gaming GPU company to the world's largest AI semiconductor company. The revenue of NVIDIA during the fiscal year she joined was 4.13 billion dollars, but it increased to 215.9 billion dollars in the 2026 fiscal year.
Before joining NVIDIA, Cress had spent about 25 years working in financial roles at Texas Instruments, Microsoft (MS), and Cisco. At Microsoft, she served as CFO of the Server and Tools Business Unit, and at Cisco, she worked as a senior financial executive.
However, she is not merely a financial officer, according to evaluations. As a result of CNBC's interviews with more than ten internal personnel and former colleagues at NVIDIA, it was revealed that she has been involved in major business decisions, including customer relationships and technology strategies.
Dan Iverson analyst said, "She is not just a CFO. Rather, she is more like a COO." He explained that she was the de facto second-in-command who supported Huang most closely.
However, it is known that Huang personally decided the priorities of major projects and the direction of technological development without appointing a separate second-in-command. Since Cress is a person with strengths in finance and business operations, it is considered an important task to determine who will lead the technology strategy and product development in the future.
Cress will continue to serve as CFO until a formal CEO is appointed. The board is reviewing both internal and external candidates, and some experts reportedly believe that hiring an external candidate is a possibility.
Harvey Jones, the newly appointed chairman of the board, is also a person who has been involved with the company since its early days. Since 1993, he has been active as a director and has also participated in the audit committee and the nomination and corporate governance committee.
Jones served as CEO of the semiconductor design automation (EDA) company Synopsis, leading the 1992 IPO. He has since built a long career in the semiconductor industry by founding companies related to semiconductor design and acting as a venture investor.
It is the first time that NVIDIA has appointed a separate board chairman since its founding. This marks a separation of roles from the previous system where operational authority was concentrated in the former CEO, Huang. It is expected that the board's role in the formal selection of a CEO and in overseeing management will increase in the future.
The immediate task of the new management is to maintain stability in the AI semiconductor development schedule, customer supply contracts, and large-scale investment plans. In particular, they need to build a new management structure while maintaining the collaboration relationships that the former CEO, Huang, has been actively leading with major cloud companies and AI developers.
NVIDIA is set to release its quarterly earnings report on the 17th. There is growing interest in what the new management will present in terms of business strategies and operational plans during the earnings report and all-employee meeting, which is the first to be held since the founder's departure.
Reporter Im Dae-jun ydj@aitimes.com
