NVIDIA replaces CEO amid AI and robotics concerns in China

After a tumultuous week that saw NVIDIA Corp. shares drop about 18.5%, CEO Jensen Huang has resigned. The company said today that it has appointed Collette Kress, executive vice president and chief financial officer, as interim chief executive officer and investor Harvey C. Jones as its first chair of the board of directors.

Huang, who is one of the most recognizable figures in the field of artificial intelligence, recently admitted to having extramarital affairs, including with Alice Huang (no relation), a Megaspeed executive suspected of being a Chinese spy, and Kimberly Powell, NVIDIA’s vice president of healthcare.

“To my colleagues at NVIDIA, including those with whom I have worked for decades, and to our board of directors, partners and shareholders around the world: you deserve better from me,” Jensen Huang wrote in a statement on November 8. “Regarding the national security concerns raised by the news, NVIDIA’s board of directors has launched an independent investigation. I support the investigation and will cooperate fully.”

Huang co-founded NVIDIA in 1993 and produces graphics processing units (GPUs) and software architectures that form the basis for much of today’s advanced computing and artificial intelligence. The Santa Clara, California-based company has a market capitalization of about $4 trillion, and its simulation and other technologies are used in industrial manipulators, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and emerging humanoid robots.

Kress and Jones to ensure business continuity

Kress has served as NVIDIA’s EVP and CFO since joining the company in September 2013. NVIDIA said she has played a key role in its growth and evolution. Prior to joining NVIDIA, Kress spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at leading technology companies including Cisco and Microsoft.

“NVIDIA’s strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation that Jensen has created over the past 33 years,” said Kress. “We will continue to advance the work that has made NVIDIA a leader in accelerated computing and artificial intelligence and take advantage of future opportunities. Our focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders.”

Jones has been an entrepreneur, technology executive and venture capital investor for more than 30 years. He was CEO and executive chairman of Synopsys.

“Colette has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position,” Jones said of Kress. “She is supported by an experienced leadership team that has been instrumental in executing NVIDIA’s strategy and advancing its technology roadmap. The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team, and we expect the company’s operations, customer engagements and product roadmap to continue uninterrupted.”

NVIDIA to endure competitive scrutiny

China leads the world in the production and use of robotics, but still relies on US AI chips and edge computing components. Amid growing trade conflicts, NVIDIA has partnered with numerous global humanoid developers, including Unitree Robotics and Alibaba Cloud. Recent revelations about possible circumvention of US export controls could lead to further investigations and reputational damage.

In the meantime, however, NVIDIA has continued to support the robotics industry. Just this week, NVIDIA introduced GR00T 2, an updated open frontier world action model, and Isaac Lab 3.0, the latest version of its open source robot learning framework. Huang spoke at the GTC in Berlin last month (see video below).

In September, NVIDIA said it would acquire Hugging Face Inc.’s open AI development platform for $12.9 billion. Pollen Robotics, a subsidiary of Hugging Face based in Bordeaux, France, developed the open-source Microduck legged robot, which uses a Chinese processor.

NVIDIA last month described how robots like Microduck could use its Isaac Lab learning framework, Newton physics modeling, Omniverse libraries and Isaac Sim simulation for evaluation. Its deal with Hugging Face will receive greater scrutiny, and competitors such as AMD, Qualcomm, Arm and Intel may seek to position themselves as more reliable Western suppliers.

Reuters and Monrningstar noted that Huang’s departure could slow down AI deals. The departure of a top tech executive could also lead to greater government scrutiny of trade deals as efforts to build so-called sovereign artificial intelligence and robotics continue. The robot report will continue to follow these developments.