Interim Nvidia CEO Colette Kress Has Tried to Tame Nvidia’s Riskiest Bets

Nvidia’s appointment Thursday of its longtime chief financial officer Colette Kress as interim CEO will force the finance veteran to guide the business through a fraught storm of uncertainty created by the sudden resignation of former CEO Jensen Huang. Kress, 59, joined Nvidia in 2013, when the business was a humble supplier of chips for gamers. And while she has played an important role in guiding the company’s ascendance to an all-important place in the AI economy, she wasn’t someone who set the agenda on the company’s major decisions, according to people familiar with Kress. Huang had run Nvidia with total control—and never established a clear succession plan. One person familiar with Kress said Huang tended to “steamroll” her whenever the two disagreed.