The AI giant appointed CFO Colette Kress interim CEO, replacing Jensen Huang, the company’s co-founder and longtime leader, who resigned Thursday after admitting to an affair that raised national security concerns. Kress will continue serving as finance chief while taking the helm of Nvidia.

Kress is “very much the right interim CEO,” Scott W. Simmons, co-managing partner of executive search firm Crist Kolder Associates, told me. As CFO for 13 years, she knows the company’s story “front and back” and is a highly respected spokesperson with credibility among investors, Simmons said.

Nvidia’s transformation during Kress’s tenure has been extraordinary. Since she joined in 2013, revenue has grown from $4.13 billion in fiscal 2014 to $130.5 billion in fiscal 2025, while its market capitalization has climbed from about $9 billion to nearly $4 trillion today—an increase of roughly 44,000%. Kress ranks No. 49 on the Fortune 2026 Most Powerful Women list.

When I first interviewed Kress in 2022, we discussed her previous roles at Cisco, Microsoft, and Texas Instruments, as well as how Nvidia attracted and retained employees.

“I think my career background did serve me well at Nvidia,” she told me. “When I started at Nvidia, it was the smallest company that I’d ever worked for. It’s gotten quite large, but the focus is on how do you think about the future and make sure we’re ready for it to scale?”

She also discussed her approach to leadership, emphasizing the importance of surrounding herself with “people that you can learn from; people that can help lead.”

The company had no publicly disclosed succession plan. Replacing a founder-CEO is especially challenging, said Simmons, who has worked in executive recruiting for almost 30 years. At Nvidia, whose longtime leader has achieved celebrity status, the task is even more complicated, he said.

“When you’re talking about cutting-edge technology that’s evolving at light speed, you’re trying to find someone who could pick the ball up and carry it down the field, and that’s difficult,” he said.

As interim CEO, Kress must help steer Nvidia through a leadership transition at a pivotal moment for the AI industry. The company plays a crucial role in shaping the technology’s future in the U.S. and beyond.

Whether she could eventually become the company’s permanent leader is another question. Simmons expects Nvidia’s board to look for a technologist to succeed Huang. Meanwhile, Nvidia has named Harvey Jones chair of the board. Jones has worked in technology, including semiconductors, for more than 30 years, Fortune’s Emily Forlini reported.

If the board decides to select a technologist as Huang’s successor, one potential internal contender, Simmons said, is Ian Buck. He joined Nvidia in 2004 and is now vice president of hyperscale and high-performance computing and a key architect of its AI business.

For leading analysts’ picks of potential outside successors to Huang, you can read my article here.

Have a good weekend.

Sheryl Estrada
Sheryl.Estrada@fortune.com

Leaderboard

Fortune 500 Power Moves

Andrew Murray was named CFO of Albertsons (No.57), effective Jan. 17. Murray succeeds Cody Perdue, who has served as interim CFO since Sept. 30 and will continue as SVP of treasury, investor relations and risk management. Murray joins Albertsons from Fonterra Co-operative Group, the world's largest dairy exporter, where he has been group CFO since 2024. He also oversees strategy, M&A, transformation and IT there. Before Fonterra, Murray was CFO of Simplot Australia, led global finance transformation at Toll Group, and held senior finance roles at Mondelez International.

The weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column tracks Fortune 500 company C-suite shifts—see the most recent edition.

More notable moves this week:

Karen Burgess was named CFO of HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS), a customer relationship management software company, effective Feb. 11. She will succeed Kate Bueker, who will retire and remain in an advisory role through December 2027. Burgess will join HubSpot on Nov. 30 as executive vice president of finance before assuming the CFO role. She joins from Adobe, where she serves as senior vice president and CFO of its Creativity & Productivity business unit. Since joining Adobe in 2002, Burgess has helped support its business model transformation.

Richard Dziadzio was named CFO of AmeriLife Group, a life and health insurance distribution, wealth management and retirement solutions company. Dziadzio succeeds Jim Quinn, who has been CFO since 2017 and moves into the newly created role of president and chief transformation officer. Most recently, Dziadzio was interim CFO of Sterling Check during its acquisition by First Advantage. 

Adrian Wood was appointed CFO of BHP Group Limited, a global resources company, effective Feb. 17. He will succeed Vandita Pant, who will step down following the release of BHP’s half-year results on Feb. 16 and remain with the company through March 29. Wood currently serves as VP of projects, minerals Australia. He joined BHP in 2015 and previously served as VP of finance, minerals Australia, and group investor relations officer. 

Jacqueline Maxwell was named CFO of Prolink, a Cincinnati-based workforce solutions firm, the company announced. She succeeds Jennifer Prospero, who becomes chief administrative officer. Maxwell has been with Prolink since 2012, most recently as vice president and corporate controller. Before that, she was a controller at Mary L. Shiley, LLC. Prospero joined Prolink as interim CFO in March 2024 and was named CFO in January 2025.

Dev Ahuja was appointed CFO of QXO (NYSE: QXO), a building products distributor, effective in January. He will succeed Ihsan Essaid, who will become vice chairman, an executive role, at the same time. Ahuja brings more than two decades of experience. He joins from aluminum producer Novelis, where he has served as CFO since 2016. Previously, he held CFO roles at Novartis for Alcon North America, Alcon Japan and the company’s South Korean business. 

Mike Barna was named CFO of Advantive, a provider of software for specialty manufacturing and distribution businesses. Barna brings more than two decades of finance and operating leadership across software and data businesses, most recently as CFO of Lone Wolf Technologies. He has also held leadership roles at CoreLogic, Information Services Group and The Nielsen Company.

Adrian Bartella was named CFO of Medical Solutions, a health care workforce solutions company. Bartella brings more than 20 years of finance leadership experience, including serving as CFO of Upstream Rehabilitation, The Fresh Market and Hudson Group. 

Big Deal

JLL’s 2026 Global Real Estate Investor AI Survey, covering 837 senior decision-makers across 12 countries, finds that AI adoption is widespread but has yet to consistently deliver the investment edge investors seek.

About 83% have scaled or embedded AI in at least one business area, and 80% report benefits, yet 43% still struggle to achieve their goals. While investors prioritize investment outperformance and proprietary analytics in capital deployment, the strongest reported results come from operational improvements in asset and property management.

JLL argues that widely available AI tools and market data can improve productivity but offer limited differentiation. Durable returns will come from applying AI to boost net operating income and building customized workflows that integrate proprietary data, institutional knowledge and relationships to strengthen existing competitive advantages, according to the report.

Going deeper

Here are four Fortune weekend reads:

"Senate Banking Committee asks Jensen Huang and Howard Lutnick to testify over ‘significant national security concerns’ next month, or face subpoenas" —Eleanor Pringle

"Jensen Huang is out at Nvidia. Elon Musk says hiring him would be ‘an honor’"  —Bilin Lin

"How Novig became the third biggest prediction market site despite launching only months ago"  —Camila Grigera Naón

"Millennials wrote off accounting as the most boring job in America—now it’s one of the hottest seasonal jobs and Gen Z’s back door to six figures" —Orianna Rosa Royle

Overheard

"There are very few companies, I think, outside of AI that have achieved our level of growth in the span of two months."

—Novig co-founder and CEO Jacob Fortinsky told Fortune in an interview. Sports-focused prediction market Novig launched as a federally regulated prediction market in August. Over the past 30 days, Novig handled $1.8 billion in trading volume on U.S.-regulated exchanges.