Nvidia Lost Its Founder. Tuesday Shows What's Left.
Jensen Huang is out, Colette Kress is interim CEO, and Nvidia is down 33% from its high. Tuesday's earnings are the first look at Nvidia without its founder. What to watch, and what it means for holders.
Quick Read
Nvidia reports earnings on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2026, after the close: its first report since founder Jensen Huang resigned as CEO on Nov. 12. CFO Colette Kress is interim CEO, and longtime director Harvey C. Jones is Nvidia's first-ever board chair, leading the search for a permanent CEO.
The stock closed at $162.85 on Nov. 13, a market value of about $4 trillion and about 33% below its 52-week high of $243.37. HSBC downgraded it to hold, saying it may struggle until a permanent CEO is named.
Nvidia guided to about $108 billion in revenue for the quarter; analysts expect about $109.2 billion. The quarter was mostly done before Huang left, so the forecast for next quarter and the tone of the call matter most.
Nvidia earnings: why Tuesday is different
Nvidia (NVDA) has spent the AI boom reporting one record quarter after another. This time the numbers share the stage with a question investors rarely ask about Nvidia: who runs it?
On Nov. 12, Nvidia said Jensen Huang had resigned as president and CEO. The board accepted the resignation a day earlier, per a regulatory filing. Huang co-founded the company in 1993 and led it for more than three decades. Nvidia gave no reason in its statement, which thanked him for his "immeasurable contributions." His exit followed days of reports about his personal conduct and a related national security inquiry; the board has said an independent investigation is under way and that it has no reason to believe company secrets were compromised.
Nvidia leadership | Before Nov. 12 | Now |
|---|---|---|
CEO | Jensen Huang, co-founder | Colette Kress, interim (also stays CFO) |
Board chair | None (Nvidia never had one) | Harvey C. Jones, director since 1993 |
Succession plan | No heir apparent named | CEO search led by Jones |
Huang's stake | About 3.5%, no super-voting shares | Unchanged |
Source: Nvidia filing and statement via TechCrunch, Benzinga
The last row matters. Huang owned about 3.5% of Nvidia with no special voting power, so the board always had the authority to act. What it did not have was a named successor.
How much the Jensen Huang resignation cost shareholders
The stock fell nearly 12% early on Thursday, Nov. 12, and dropped another 2% on Friday after HSBC's downgrade. By Friday's close it had lost as much as 19% from the previous Friday's level at its lows, and the market value slipped to about $4 trillion, its lowest close since July 2025, per CNBC.
Nvidia share price | Price | What it marks |
|---|---|---|
52-week high | $243.37 | The peak of the AI rally |
Nov. 5 close | $181.60 | Day of the AI chip selloff |
Nov. 13 close | $162.85 | After the CEO exit and HSBC downgrade |
Source: StockTitan, Motley Fool
This is the second blow in two weeks. On Nov. 5, Nvidia fell 9% in the AI chip selloff on fears of slower data center construction, which we covered in our Nasdaq correction note. Investors are now pricing two different risks at once: demand and leadership.
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What to watch in Nvidia's Q3 earnings report
The quarter itself was mostly set before Huang left. The risk sits in what comes next.
Tuesday's scorecard | The number | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
Revenue, this quarter | Guide about $108B; analysts about $109.2B | A beat is expected; a miss would be a shock |
Next-quarter guidance | Not yet given | The real test of demand after the selloff |
China | About 8% of last quarter's revenue ($7.9B) | Export scrutiny could widen |
Leadership | Kress's first call as interim CEO | Tone on customers, supply and the CEO search |
Source: investingLive, TechCrunch, Motley Fool
Four things will shape how investors read it:
The guide. After the data center scare, a strong forecast for next quarter says customers are still buying. A soft one would feed both fears at once.
Customers. Any comment on spending plans from Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), and Meta (META) carries extra weight this time.
Exports. HSBC flagged that about 11% of revenue over six quarters came from outside the US and Taiwan, which stricter export rules could hit. Congress is also asking about chip exports.
The search. Any timeline for a permanent CEO, or a sign that the strategy stays the same.
The bull case and the bear case for Nvidia stock
The bull case. Nvidia's products, customers and engineering teams did not change on Nov. 12. Kress has run Nvidia's finances through its entire AI boom and knows every customer contract. The stock is about a third below its high, so a clean quarter and a clear guide could show the business is bigger than one person.
The bear case. Huang was more than a manager. He set the product roadmap, negotiated with the largest customers and lobbied on export rules. There was no named successor, and a long search can mean slower decisions just as competition from AMD (AMD) and in-house chips grows. Analysts like HSBC expect the stock to struggle until a permanent CEO is in place.
Both cases agree on one thing: Tuesday tells you about demand, but not yet about leadership. That question stays open until the board names a CEO.
What this means for you as an investor
Founder exits test a habit many investors share: owning a company partly because of the person running it. Three questions help sort it out:
Why do I own it? If the reason is AI demand, Tuesday's guide matters most. If it was Huang himself, the reason just changed.
How big is it in my portfolio? Nvidia grew into a large weight for many investors. A drop of as much as 19% in a week shows what that concentration feels like.
What would change my mind? Decide in advance what you would want to see: a strong guide, a named CEO, or a clean investigation outcome.
Nvidia isn't the only AI test this week. Anthropic is set to price its IPO on Wednesday and start trading Thursday; our IPO series, The ANT Files, tracks the listed companies tied to it, Nvidia included. Read The ANT Files
Research cue · try it in HeyTheo
Build a basket of Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom and Micron, and set a trigger for any day the basket moves more than 5%. You see whether Tuesday's move is about Nvidia alone, or about AI chips. Open HeyTheo
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Research it yourself: rules HeyTheo tracks
Earnings alert. A heads-up when NVDA reports and moves after the bell.
AI chips basket. Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom and Micron side by side.
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The Empty Chair
Every company eventually outgrows its founder, but few do it in a single week. Nvidia now has an interim CEO, a first-ever chair and an empty chair at the top. Tuesday's numbers will say how the business is doing. Who fills that chair will say where it goes next.
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Sources
Nvidia, TechCrunch, Benzinga, CNBC, Motley Fool, StockTitan, investingLive, Yahoo Finance
Disclaimer
Disclaimer: HeyTheo is a research and education platform, not an investment adviser or broker-dealer. Nothing here is advice to buy, sell, or hold any security. You trade through your own broker; HeyTheo helps you decide. Backtested results are hypothetical and do not guarantee future returns. References to governments, officials, or policies are for market context only and are not political endorsements. All investing involves risk, including loss of principal. Data is as of the dates noted.