Jensen Huang didn’t show confidence in his successor, report says

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Former NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang described Collette Kress, the company’s CFO who has now replaced him as interim CEO, as “a deer in the headlights” during a presentation earlier in the summer, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an anonymous source.

Huang made the comment during a meeting with Nvidia’s finance team about the company’s plans to provide guarantees worth billions of dollars to data center operators that couldn’t afford to buy its chips upfront, according to the report.

He reportedly also said Kress was a person who couldn’t help him steer strategy or decision-making.

Kress has been with Nvidia for over 13 years now, after serving as SVP and CFO of Cisco’s Business Technology Operations Finance. The report said she has questioned Nvidia’s program-focused, credit-based deals involving Huang’s son-in-law Nico Caprez, and wanted to know how to decide which deals are beneficial, how to value guarantees, and determine returns.

Earlier in the year, she had scaled back on Nvidia’s commitment for OpenAI’s ambitious Ohio data center project. The company was in talks to provide $250 billion in credit to OpenAI, but ended up committing $105 billion.

Huang resigned Thursday after reports of two extramarital affairs, including one with the company’s VP for healthcare, Kimberly Powell. The company is also investigating a possible Chinese espionage plot.

After his resignation, Reuters reported that he was having a third affair with another employee. Nvidia is currently searching for a permanent CEO to replace Huang, who had the top job for over 33 years.