Jensen Huang Steps Down as NVIDIA CEO, Hugging Face CEO Vows to Push Open-Source AI

Jensen Huang has stepped down as President, CEO and Director of NVIDIA, effective immediately. CFO Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO, and the company has started the search for a new chief executive.

Hugging Face CEO Clement Delangue soon shared a post on LinkedIn, calling it an incredibly sad day and saying he wishes none of this had ever happened. He stressed that Hugging Face will work harder than ever to defend open-source AI and cannot slow down now.

Huang co-founded NVIDIA in 1993 and served as CEO for decades, growing the company from a graphics chip maker into a global core player in AI computing.

His exit comes as NVIDIA is pushing forward a deal to buy Hugging Face for about 12.9 billion dollars. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027, and the U.S. Department of Justice has already looked into its impact on competition in the AI market.