Nvidia’s rise from chipmaker to AI infrastructure powerhouse has transformed it into one of the world’s most valuable companies. Leading the financial operation behind that ascent is CFO Colette Kress, No. 49 on the 2026 Fortune Most Powerful Women list.Kress joined Nvidia in 2013. Before that, she was SVP and CFO of Cisco’s Business Technology and Operations Finance organization. She also spent 13 years at Microsoft, including four years as CFO of its Server and Tools Division. Earlier in her career, Kress held various finance positions at Texas Instruments.
In 2022, Nvidia was worth less than $400 billion. By 2024, it had crossed $3 trillion in market value. In 2025 and 2026, fueled by explosive demand for AI infrastructure, Nvidia surpassed the $5 trillion mark. The company has become pivotal to the AI industry, with its GPUs used by hyperscalers including Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta, as well as AI labs like OpenAI, startups, and governments.
“AI is no longer a nice-to-have. AI is now a necessity for enhancing productivity across all industries and roles,” Kress said on Nvidia’s May 20 earnings call. “This is propelling revenue acceleration across all layers of the AI stack, including energy, chips, infrastructure, models, and applications.”
