Nvidia's Interim Chief Kress Was the Executive Who Pushed Back on Huang's Big Bets

Reuters reports that Colette Kress, Nvidia's 59-year-old chief financial officer now serving as interim chief executive, spent years as the one Nvidia executive willing to check Jensen Huang's enormous, often risky ambitions. According to two people familiar with the matter, as Huang drove the chipmaker deeper into multibillion-dollar AI investments, Kress pushed back; she has now been handed the top job on an interim basis while Nvidia searches for a permanent successor. Huang stepped down on Thursday in a cloud of scandal, leaving the company he co-founded and ran for three decades. Nvidia's stock fell as much as 14% on Thursday before closing down 4.3%. (Photo: Nvidia interim CEO Colette Kress, file photo.)

Repeated clashes over OpenAI and Lambda financing deals

According to one of the people familiar with the matter, Kress and her staff clashed with Huang and the company's sales team over the massive and risky financing deals that fed into what some Wall Street critics deemed a "circular AI economy", including investments in OpenAI and AI infrastructure companies such as Lambda. A proposed $250 billion plan to support an OpenAI data centre project in Ohio was ultimately pared to $120 billion.

November 17 earnings are the first test

Nvidia is due to report third-quarter results on November 17, in what will be the first earnings call under Kress as interim chief executive. Investors will be watching guidance, the China business, and the direction of the company's cloud commitments and investment book. An industry briefing also notes that the lease arrangements under the $34.9 billion Lambda agreement reached in August remain to be settled. Nvidia's board is still searching for a permanent chief executive. (Source: Reuters.)