Elon Musk has backed an employee-led campaign seeking the reinstatement of former Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, just one day after the chipmaker announced Huang’s resignation. In a post on X on Friday, November 13, the Tesla and SpaceX chief said he would sign a petition calling for Huang’s return, as the “Stand with Jensen” petition launched by Nvidia employees surpassed 21,000 signatures by the morning of November 14, including more than 2,000 current and former Nvidia employees.
The petitioners are demanding that the board not rush to let Huang leave before an investigation clarifies the facts, and they have issued a letter to the board with three specific demands. Nvidia announced on November 12 that Huang had resigned as president, chief executive officer and a member of the board, effective immediately, ending a 33-year tenure at the company he co-founded in 1993. The company appointed chief financial officer Colette Kress as interim CEO and named director Harvey Jones as its first-ever chairman.
A Search That Has Barely Started
Nvidia’s board has begun the process of selecting a permanent CEO, considering both internal and external candidates, but CNBC reported on November 13 that the board was still choosing a search firm and had not formally engaged candidates. Internal candidates include Kress and Ian Buck, who manages the company’s AI hardware and software products. Arm Holdings chief executive Rene Haas has emerged as a potential candidate in media reports, and AMD chief executive Lisa Su has also been mooted. The company has kept its November 17 earnings schedule.
The Shares Tell the Story
Nvidia shares fell 4.3 percent on November 12 to close at $166.19, down 30.5 percent from the all-time closing high of $239.24 on October 6. The board had announced on November 8 that it had launched an independent investigation into reports that Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence operation, and no findings have been made public. Huang has acknowledged marital infidelity, and the company’s announcement gave no reason for his departure. No public finding establishes espionage or an export-control violation. For the congressional angle, read Huang summoned to testify as Congress probes Nvidia China sales and Kimberly Powell: who is Nvidia executive in Huang affair claim.
