Huang privately called Kress 'a deer in the headlights' as she takes over

Kress inherits an ‘avalanche’ of chip-supply commitments and open probes

The Wall Street Journal’s account of Nvidia’s leadership handoff traces back to a summer meeting in Jensen Huang’s office. Huang summoned his top finance executives to his office this summer. The AI economy, backstopped by Nvidia’s increasingly outrageous bets, was teetering, and Huang wanted to make sure his finance team was getting it right, the Journal reported.

During that meeting, Huang tore into the woman who is now taking over for him. Colette Kress was “a deer in the headlights,” Huang said. He described her as a “reporting CFO” who couldn’t help him define strategy as an “avalanche” of chip-supply commitments loomed, the Journal reported.

Kress was named interim chief executive Thursday after Huang resigned in the wake of two extramarital affairs. She must now steer Nvidia through that avalanche — and a bigger one — while the company faces federal and internal probes and searches for a permanent CEO, the Journal reported.

Huang’s exit makes Nvidia the most valuable company to abruptly lose a leader so instrumental to its fortunes, the Journal reported, though it is hardly the first. Apple lost founder-and-rescuer Steve Jobs to cancer. McDonald’s abruptly fired Steve Easterbrook, alleging an improper relationship with a subordinate. Nissan dropped Carlos Ghosn as chairman in 2018, just after police arrested him in Tokyo on allegations of financial misconduct and underreporting his income. The danger of losing a seemingly indispensable leader is known as key-person risk in investor parlance.

The gap Huang identified in that summer meeting was strategic: he said Kress couldn’t help him define strategy as the chip-supply commitments piled up. Kress now leads Nvidia through those commitments and its investigations while the search for a permanent chief executive continues.

Other reporting in the same Journal edition covered U.S. fuel shipments to Cuba, AI-enabled payments, retirement-market wealth and imported kei vehicles.

After more than six decades of U.S. efforts to block trade with Cuba, the Trump administration’s oil embargo has produced what the Journal described as an unlikely result: the United States is now the island’s primary fuel supplier. U.S. fuel arriving in smaller shipments has kept cars, trucks and household generators running, report Roberto Ferdman, Belle Cushing and Ashley Cai. U.S. ports have shipped more than 1.6 million barrels of fuel, worth over $230 million, according to U.S. Census Bureau data through August. The Journal reported that the shipments have made U.S. exporters an important fuel source for Cuba’s private businesses, even if some of the fuel reaches the government the embargo is meant to pressure.

Artificial-intelligence bots are advancing in ways the Journal said could reshape consumer payments. Meta’s Muse and other personal AI assistants have been empowered in recent weeks to make purchases on behalf of cardholders, marking new steps toward a potential future where consumers no longer need to initiate a purchase or press “buy” at checkout. The Journal reported excitement about the bots’ potential in payments, alongside worries inside banks, other payments companies and merchants about the implications and whether bots will lead to elevated cases of fraud and returns, and open new legal risks, report AnnaMaria Andriotis, Ben Glickman and Gina Heeb.

The North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton area along Florida’s southwest Gulf Coast ranks as America’s richest retirement market, according to Anthony Smith, a senior economist with Realtor.com. Smith’s estimate of the housing value held by homeowners age 65 and older in North Port, Fla., alone underscores the ranking. Buyers flock to the area for its variety, from golf communities and canal-front homes to master-planned developments built for aging in place.

Christina Dravis dragged a tiny, imported truck 300 miles north from Maryland to her home in upstate New York, only to find out it was illegal to drive; that is when she joined the fight, the Journal reported. “Kei” cars, the minuscule trucks, vans and sports cars native to Japan, are popping up across the U.S. despite carmakers not making or selling them here. Owners like Dravis are giving them a second life as recreational vehicles and work trucks. But they’re running into roadblocks; New York is among several states that typically block owners from registering them. Now, a coalition of kei-loving New Yorkers is fighting back.