The Gated Power of the Interim CEO

OPINION: In the corridors of power at Nvidia, the title of CEO is the only one that truly matters. For years, Colette Kress operated as the financial engine of one of the world's most valuable companies, serving as CFO and joining Jensen Huang on nearly every quarterly earnings call. Yet, as Wired reporting reveals, when Huang was asked to identify the most powerful women in tech, he looked everywhere but his own boardroom.

Huang cited Dina Powell of Meta and Ruth Porat of Google—women he noted he sees while in Washington D.C.—and eventually conceded that SpaceX's President and COO, Gwynne Shotwell, was impressive. He completely omitted Kress, the woman who now sits as interim CEO atop the AI industry's bedrock.

This isn't just a lapse in memory; it is a textbook example of how power is gated. For women in tech, 'power' is often framed as a proximity to the center, rather than the ability to steer the ship. Kress has spent over 13 years at Nvidia, bringing experience from her time as SVP and CFO of Cisco’s Business Technology and Operations Finance. She has wielded tangible, systemic power—most notably when she scaled back Nvidia's commitment to OpenAI's Ohio data center project, reducing a proposed $250 billion credit line to $105 billion.

However, the Wall Street Journal, citing an anonymous source, reports that Huang viewed this operational rigor as a liability. During a meeting with the finance team regarding billions of dollars in guarantees for data center operators, Huang reportedly described Kress as "a deer in the headlights." He further claimed she was unable to assist him in steering decision-making or strategy.

There is a telling contradiction here. While Huang dismissed Kress's strategic utility, TechCrunch reports that Kress had been questioning the very deals Huang favored—specifically program-focused, credit-based deals involving Nico Caprez, Huang's son-in-law. Kress sought clarity on how to value guarantees, determine returns, and decide which deals were actually beneficial.

In the eyes of the man at the top, a woman exercising critical oversight is not 'powerful'; she is an obstacle. The performative nature of this dynamic is laid bare by the fact that Kress was only elevated to the top spot after Huang's sudden resignation following reports of multiple extramarital affairs—including one with VP for healthcare Kimberly Powell—and an investigation into a Chinese espionage plot.

Kress now holds the most precarious seat in tech, making decisions that will reverberate across the global economy. But the fact that her predecessor could not name her as a peer, despite her indispensable role in building his empire, proves that in Silicon Valley, women are often allowed to run the machinery, but they are rarely seen as the architects.