Former Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang, who resigned following revelations of an extramarital affair with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy, had previously publicly criticized his successor, Nvidia interim CEO Collette Cress, according to recent reports.
Huang reportedly compared Cress to a ‘deer in the headlights’ and evaluated her as lacking strategic decision-making capabilities. The Wall Street Journal reported on the 12th (local time) about past anecdotes where Huang harshly criticized Cress’s business acumen during her tenure as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
According to sources, Huang summoned then-CFO Cress and her finance team last summer to discuss the company’s financial burden issues. At the time, Nvidia was considering providing billions of dollars in guarantees to companies lacking funds to purchase its semiconductors. Huang was concerned whether such transactions would place an excessive burden on the company.
During the meeting, Huang abruptly stopped Cress’s presentation. He then criticized her by comparing her to “a deer in the headlights,” implying that she was too startled and panicked to respond properly, much like a deer frozen in the glare of car headlights.
Huang also evaluated Cress as a “reporting CFO.” The intent was that she was limited to reporting financial statuses and lacked the ability to formulate strategies or make major executive decisions.
Challenging the Inner Circle and Reducing Investments
Despite this, Cress has been an active voice in Nvidia’s major management issues. Having joined Nvidia in 2013, she drove the company’s growth alongside Huang. Nvidia’s corporate value reached $5.8 trillion (approx. 7,726 trillion won) as of October.
Cress also showed a cautious attitude during the review of the company’s financial support plans. Last spring, Vice Presidents Nico Caprez (Huang’s son-in-law) and Raj Mirpuri proposed a business plan to provide credit support to cloud service providers in exchange for a portion of their profits.
In response, Cress meticulously questioned everything from recipient selection criteria and guarantee valuation methods to return on investment calculations. Colleagues who worked with Cress stated that she made efforts to check Vice President Caprez, who was promoted in January.
Cress’s influence was also evident in the large-scale data center project in Ohio promoted by OpenAI. She is known to have participated in re-evaluating the financial support scale provided by Nvidia, cutting the initially discussed initial support amount in half. Nvidia and OpenAI subsequently signed a contract under the reduced terms.
Respecting Huang Despite the Harsh Criticism
Although she received harsh criticism from Huang, Cress has consistently shown deep respect for him. She previously cited Huang as one of the reasons she was drawn to Nvidia, evaluating him as a “pioneer.”
She maintained this attitude even after rising to the position of interim CEO following Huang’s resignation. In a memo sent to all employees after being appointed interim CEO, Cress stated, “We will continue to build upon the exceptional foundation that Jensen has built over the past 33 years.”
