Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress, a 13-year company veteran, is taking the helm of the world’s most valuable chipmaker on an interim basis after Jensen Huang’s sudden resignation.

“She’s the only one internally that has this significant respect,” Dan Ives, an analyst at Yorkville Ives & Co., told CNBC before the news had been made official. “She’s more than just a CFO. I’d almost view her as more of a COO.”

Nvidia hasn’t announced a succession plan and said the board is considering internal and external candidates.

Kress joined Nvidia in September 2013, after holding finance roles at Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments. At Nvidia, Kress has been the other big voice on earnings calls, reporting the company’s results and taking questions alongside Huang.

“NVIDIA’s strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years,” Kress said in Thursday’s statement. “We will continue advancing the work that has made NVIDIA a leader in accelerated computing and AI, and execute on the opportunities ahead. Our focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders.”

Huang, who co-founded Nvidia in 1993, was known for running the company with no clear second-in-command, personally deciding which projects are a priority and emailing engineers about details.

But when it came to Kress, “Jensen didn’t do anything without her,” Ives said. “She’s a Swiss Army knife for Nvidia. Anything strategically: customers, partners, technology. She was involved.”

CNBC spoke to nearly a dozen Nvidia insiders and former Kress co-workers. They described her as savvy, knowledgeable, thoughtful and clear-headed.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/12/colette-kress-nvidia-cfo-interim-ceo-candidate.html?shem=aimgspe,i3ppal,