Nvidia staff wait 6 days for an all-hands after Jensen Huang’s exit. PR experts warn employees need answers sooner

Detailed summary

“Even if she didn't have every single aspect 100% sorted out at that moment, it's too long to wait,” a communications executive told Fortune.

On Thursday, Nvidia announced CEO Jensen Huang’s resignation, effective immediately, following his admission to having an extramarital affair with an alleged Chinese spy. The New York Times has also reported that he had an affair with another Nvidia executive, Kimberly Powell, the company’s vice president of health care. Neither Nvidia nor Powell has publicly addressed that report.

CFO Colette Kress was named interim CEO, and one of her first moves was addressing employees. But the company won’t hold an all-hands meeting until Nov. 18, six days after Thursday’s announcement, and several communications experts told Fortune that’s too long to leave a shaken workforce waiting.

Kress has been with Nvidia since 2013, having previously held senior finance roles at Cisco and Microsoft. She ranked No. 49 on the 2026 Fortune Most Powerful Women list.

She takes over a company whose market value topped $5 trillion at its peak. Nvidia, No. 16 on the 2026 Fortune 500, was the first company on the list to pass $4 trillion. It has since dropped below that mark after news of Huang’s affairs and his resignation.

Nvidia could also be drawn into multiple Justice Department investigations, including an antitrust probe aimed at the chipmaker itself and two separate inquiries into Megaspeed and Supermicro that center on Alice Huang, the alleged Chinese spy, Semafor reported, citing two administration officials. Semafor reported no sign the DOJ currently intends to pursue criminal charges against Nvidia or Huang. Fortune has reported on why Nvidia can’t shake China smuggling allegations.

Some employees have voiced their shock publicly. “Jensen Huang rescued me from probably living in debt the rest of my life … I’ve never spoken to him, and only passed by him in HQ once,” one X user who identifies themself as an Nvidia employee wrote in a post on Thursday. “His personal life is frankly none of my business. But as a leader, I have yet to meet a better one.”

“Ousting him is financial suicide, and…

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