Nvidia CFO Colette Kress pushed back on Jensen Huang’s riskiest AI bets

For most of Nvidia’s AI boom, Jensen Huang has been the face, the voice, and the leather jacket. Colette Kress has been the person checking the receipts.

According to the research findings behind this story, she spent much of that time pushing back on some of Huang’s most aggressive and risky AI investments. That pushback is now getting much closer attention.

The research also says Kress was reportedly named Nvidia’s interim CEO on November 12, 2026, after Huang resigned. She is expected to stay on as CFO while the board looks for a permanent chief executive. That puts the company’s most visible skeptic of big-swing financing in charge of the company that built its empire on big swings.

The $130 billion haircut

The clearest example of Kress’s influence involves a data center project in Ohio backed by OpenAI.

Nvidia’s financial commitment to the project initially stood at $250 billion. Under Kress’s watch, that figure was scaled back to $120 billion before the deal was finalized on August 17, 2026.

That is a reduction of more than half. Few executives can say they talked their boss out of $130 billion, and fewer still keep their jobs afterward.

The deal sits inside a broader debate about what critics call “circular” financing. In this model, Nvidia provides financial support to partners who then use that support to buy Nvidia’s chips.

Wall Street observers had already been scrutinizing the arrangement. The concern is simple: if partners’ purchases rely partly on Nvidia’s own money, some of the company’s growth may be less independent than it appears.

Kress, per the research, acted as a counterweight to Huang’s acquisition and funding strategies, specifically the high-risk models tagged with the circular label.

Friction at the top

The disagreements were not purely technical spreadsheet debates. The research describes reported tensions between Kress and Huang, including moments where Huang publicly undermined her approach.

In one August 2026 meeting, Huang allegedly belittled Kress by describing her as “a deer in the headlights.” The remark has been reported but should be read as an allegation, not an established account of the meeting.

Clashes over multibillion-dollar deals were also reported, pointing to a real split in philosophy. Huang reportedly favored speed and scale. Kress reportedly favored limits and structure.

A résumé built on discipline

Kress joined Nvidia in 2013. Before that, she held roles at Texas Instruments, Microsoft, and Cisco, a lineup that reads like a tour of large, process-heavy tech organizations.

The scale of change since her arrival is hard to overstate. Nvidia’s annual revenue was approximately $4.13 billion in 2013. By fiscal 2026, it reached $215.9 billion.

That credibility will be tested soon. Kress is set to address investors on the upcoming earnings call, where she will likely face questions about existing commitments, the Ohio deal, and whether the company’s financing strategy is about to change.

What this means for Nvidia and its partners

Partners like OpenAI have reason to watch closely. The Ohio deal shows Kress is willing to renegotiate commitments that look oversized. Any company counting on Nvidia’s balance sheet to help fund its own buildout may find the terms less generous going forward.

The research findings suggest stakeholders could see increased scrutiny of Nvidia’s future projects and partnerships.

What to watch: the tone of the upcoming earnings call, any revisions to existing partner financing arrangements, and the board’s progress on a permanent CEO.