Nvidia employees demand second chance for Jensen Huang

On Thursday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned as president, chief executive and board member of Nvidia. He made this decision after facing scrutiny over his reported extramarital affairs, one of which was with suspected Chinese spy Alice Huang. While Nvidia, the world’s largest maker of AI chips, has announced a transition with CFO Colette Kress taking over as interim chief, employees are not so happy.As per a report from Wired, Nvidia employees have come out in support of Jensen Huang in posts on an internal suggestion box. Before Nvidia announced Jensen Huang’s retirement, a long-serving engineer urged the board to consider employees’ views. The report states that since the post was made, 1,600 comments have been added to it.Jensen Huang founded Nvidia in 1993. During the 33 years as CEO, Jensen turned Nvidia into one of the most valuable companies in the world.Bring back the boss, Nvidia employees say“If you believe in the mission, bring back THE boss,” one anonymous commenter wrote. Another Nvidia employee insisted that while Jensen Huang may have made a mistake, we are all humans. “We are all humans and can make mistakes. Jensen did so many good things and he needs a second chance,” they said. One employee sent a companywide email demanding transparency. “I stand by Jensen,” the staffer wrote. “Not because I believe any person is infallible, but because I refuse to believe that standing for fairness must mean standing at a distance from someone whose leadership has meant so much to us.” The email added, “If America fails the man who helped build its future, then this world does not deserve Jensen Huang.”About two dozen employees also posted messages supporting Huang on LinkedIn. No posts supporting his resignation were identified in the report.Silicon Valley backs Jensen Huang Nvidia employees were not alone in supporting their founder. Some of the biggest names in the world of tech shared similar views.On X, tech trillionaire Elon Musk responded to a post that compared Jensen Huang’s resignation to the time when Steve Jobs left Apple. “You’d think we’d have learned from Steve Jobs and Travis Kalanick that one does not just simply replace the founder,” the post read. Musk replied, “True words.” The SpaceX CEO previously said he would be “honoured” to hire Jensen Huang. Elon Musk replied on X. Meanwhile, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas thanked Jensen Huang for “33 years of bold leadership” in an X post. “You built a small startup into America’s most valuable company, with relentless improvement,” Srinivas wrote. Aravind Srinivas praised Jensen Huang on X. US President Donald Trump, who is known to have good relations with Huang, called the former Nvidia CEO a “legend.” In a Truth Social post, Trump claimed that only someone like ex-Apple CEO Tim Cook could fill Jensen’s shoes at Nvidia. “NOW THAT Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place - TIM COOK of Apple,” Trump wrote. “A Legend replaces a Legend!” US President Donald Trump believes Tim Cook should replace Jensen Huang at Nvidia. Fortnite maker Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney called Huang’s exit “a sad day for NVIDIA, developers, America, and all humanity.” He praised Jensen Huang for his efforts at Nvidia. Recalling how Huang “saved” a 2015 GDC presentation by delivering a graphics card, Sweeney added, “The dude truly is the visionary driver of the future of tech from the gaming GPU era to CUDA to AI supercomputers.” Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney claimed that Huang's exit made it a sad day for humanity. Some within Silicon Valley suspected that China may want Huang out of Nvidia. Anduril founder Palmer Luckey said before the resignation, “China wants Jensen out, so I want him in.” OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger wrote, “If that Spy’s goal was to destabilise one of the most successful American companies, they achieved their goal. Ousting Jensen feels rushed and not right.” Peter Steinberger said. Jensen Huang has not commented on his resignation. His last public remarks came when he told employees on Sunday about his affair. “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and her children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry,” he wrote in a memo. Though Jensen did not name Alice Huang in the memo.The US is investigating Jensen’s relationship with Alice, who is suspected of spying for the Chinese intelligence agency, MSS. She co-founded Singapore-based Megaspeed International in 2023, which reportedly bought Nvidia hardware worth $7.5 billion for Chinese clients, including Alibaba.Further reports alleged that Huang had an affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice-president of healthcare and a direct report. Reuters subsequently reported an intimate relationship with another Nvidia employee, though the employee’s identity has not been disclosed.- Ends