NVIDIA's CFO Colette Kress becomes acting CEO, and the November 17 earnings report stays on schedule

Concept illustration in line-drawing style of a room: on the left, three people sit in pale chairs along a long table, the leftmost holding an open document drawn with lines of text and the other two each with a dark folder lying flat on the table, while an empty high-backed red office chair stands at the right end of the table. Past a vertical wall post on the right is a closed door bearing two signs lettered "CFO" and "INTERIM CEO", and on the wall beside it is a small sign with a green emblem and the lettering "NVIDIA". Printed on the image: NVIDIA says the board has begun searching for a permanent CEO.

NVIDIA filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on November 12 that its board had accepted Jensen Huang's resignation as president, CEO and director on November 11, effective immediately (NVIDIA current report, 2026-11-12). Our inference: November 17's report runs only to October 25, so it still covers a quarter Huang ran. The new leadership's approach to investments, guarantees and payment terms will show first in the report's notes on events after November 11 and in management's outlook.

The new fact is the outcome: SecondSource's November 12 issue reported a board meeting on whether to keep Huang, and the board has now accepted the resignation. The filing doesn't say whether a removal process came first. Colette Kress, NVIDIA's CFO since 2013, now also serves as acting CEO. NVIDIA's press release says the board has begun searching for a permanent CEO and that third-quarter results will be released on November 17 as originally scheduled (NVIDIA press release, 2026-11-12).

NVIDIA's third quarter, by SecondSource's count, ended on October 25, 17 days before Huang resigned.

The first quarter that runs mostly under the new leadership is the fourth, from October 26 to January 31, 2027. NVIDIA's quarterly reports carry a subsequent-events note covering major events after quarter-end and before the report comes out. The second-quarter report used that note for a set of guarantees signed in August, with caps totaling US$105 billion. A guarantee is a promise by NVIDIA to pay if the party it covers does not. Fourth-quarter figures will be released with the full-year results, and most of the full year itself still falls under Huang.

Payment terms for customers are one of the conditions the new leadership can change. NVIDIA's second-quarter report says NVIDIA has given some investment-grade customers payment terms of 90 days to a year on large data-center purchases, and may do so again. Accounts receivable rose from US$38.466 billion on January 25 to US$63.059 billion on July 26. The report doesn't say how much of that comes from extended terms.

Not proven yet: the third quarter's end date is SecondSource's calculation; the filing doesn't state it How we checked →

Next to watch: commitments signed or cancelled after November 11 (the subsequent-events note in the third-quarter report, current reports on material agreements), any change in how management describes payment terms, and the first capital allocation under the permanent CEO. Fourth-quarter figures can't be read directly as the new leadership's decisions: fourth-quarter cash flows still include payments on commitments signed before the resignation, and the second-quarter report's commitments table alone lists US$18 billion of equity investment commitments for the fiscal year's remaining two quarters. The first phase of the August guarantees is expected to take effect in fiscal 2029, so fourth-quarter cash flows are not expected to include payments on them. If the third-quarter cash flow statement already shows investment pulling back sharply, the tightening began before the resignation and can't be credited to the new leadership; if the fourth quarter still looks like the second, that shows only that old commitments are still being paid, not that the new leadership endorses them.

Correction details (Main line 1). The item said that if the third-quarter notes and management said nothing, the answer would wait for the fourth-quarter figures in the full-year results. That the fourth quarter is the first mostly under the new leadership is a calendar fact and stands; what is withdrawn is reading its figures as the new leadership's approach. The NVIDIA second-quarter report this issue cites states "We committed to make certain equity investments in AI model makers, infrastructure financiers, and other private companies, subject to certain contingencies", and its commitments table lists US$18 billion of equity investment commitments, as of July 26, for the fiscal year's remaining two quarters, so part of fourth-quarter investment cash flow may be payments on those pre-resignation commitments. Receivables also reflect terms granted on earlier multi-quarter deals, and the report says such extended terms "will continue to affect the timing of our operating cash flows", so fourth-quarter cash flows still include payments on commitments signed before the resignation. The acting CEO has been CFO since 2013, so a policy change is not established either. The SB Energy guarantees signed in August are not part of this lag: the report says "Each guarantee generally becomes effective upon commencement of the applicable lease, with corresponding guarantee amounts increasing, as each of the nine phases of data center construction is completed, the first of which is expected in fiscal year 2029" and "Our payment obligations under the guarantees are triggered upon certain tenant defaults", so fourth-quarter cash flows are not expected to include payments on them. The next-to-watch paragraph has been rewritten to point to commitments signed or cancelled after November 11, changes in payment-term wording and the permanent CEO's first capital allocation, with a limit added: a fourth quarter that still looks like the second shows only that old commitments are still being paid, not that the new leadership endorses them. The cause was attributing results to the new leadership by calendar period without addressing the lag between commitments and payments. The newsletter sent on November 13 is the original version and cannot be recalled; the Chinese, English and Japanese issue pages and main-line item 1 story pages are corrected together.

Source and checks

This item ran in the brief of Nov 13, 2026, alongside 16 other items. How we checked it, the quote checks and what was still missing that day are on that issue's How we checked page.

Cite this item

SecondSource (2026). "NVIDIA's CFO Colette Kress becomes acting CEO, and the November 17 earnings report stays on schedule." https://secondsource.io/en/news/2026-11-13-1/. Accessed access date.